-4 




Class E 

Book f W 

DOBELL COLLECTION 



J 



THE 

PLEIAD; 

OR, 

A SERIES OF ABRIDGEMENTS 
OF SEVEN DISTINGUISHED WRITERS, 

IN OPPOSITION TO THE 

PERNICIOUS DOCTRINES OF 

DEISM. 

BY THE 

Rev. Francis Wrangham, M. A. F. R. S. 

ARCHDEACON OF CLEVELAND. 



Better had they ne'er been born, 
Who read to doubt, or read to scorn. 




[Only Twenty-five perfect Copies.] 



J 820. 




205449 
'13 




TO 



THE MOST REVEREND 

EDWARD 
LORD ARCHBISHOP OF YORK, 

My dear Lord, 

In drawing up the following 
Abridgements, I merely sought to present to the 
less educated portion of the public a succession 
of triumphant arguments for the truth of Christi- 
anity, in a shape capable at once of being easily 
examined and widely circulated. In order to 
throw additional light upon the series, I prefixed 
to each, in their separate form, a short account 
of it's Author or of his train of reasoning ; and 
I, everywhere, carefully subjoined references to 
the quoted texts of Scripture in the margin. 

My labour has, I own, been an humble one; 
but I trust, and pray, that it may not be without 
it's use. The subject seems eminently to de- 
mand the exertions of the Clergy ; nor can it 
appear, to sounder judgements, otherwise than 
honourable to be even a door-keeper in the 



( 4 } 



House of God upon such an occasion. If, in- 
deed, the Deist's assertions are true, then is 
our preaching vain. 

Having with your full approbation devoted a 
portion of that leisure and industry, which it has 
pleased the Almighty to bestow upon me, to 
this employment, I feel that I cannot inscribe 
the result to any one with so much propriety as 
to your Grace : more especially, since I have had 
numerous opportunities of knowing the very 
deep interest which not only as a Prelate, but 
still more as a Christian, you have taken in 
defeating the late flagitious attempts to unsettle 
the faith of the unlearned; because I am con- 
vinced that the sanction of a name, so justly 
venerated, must add tenfold popularity to what- 
ever it protects ; and as I thus gain another 
occasion of expressing the profound respect and 
regard, with which I remain 

Ever your Grace's most obliged 

and faithful humble servant, 

Francis Wrangham. 

HUNMANBY, 

October 14, 1820. 



PKEFACJE 



With respect to the following Tracts, I would merely 

premise, 

I. That Leland has most powerfully exhibited the general 

mischievousness of Deism, in the Summary attached 
to his View of the principal JDeistical Writers of 
England of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Cen- 
turies'; 

II. That, in reasoning upon the chief Miracles recorded in 

the Old Testament, no one has surpassed the energy 
or the conclusiveness of Leslie's ' Short and Easy 
Method with the Deists'; 

III. That Doddridge's Three Sermons on the External 

Evidences of the New Testament, are universally 
characterised as compositions evincing the utmost 
clearness of arrangement ; 

IV. That the objections alleged against both Testaments by 

the French Infidels (Voltaire, Volney,&c.) andrepeated 
with so much scurrility and acrimony by their English 
brethren, Paine and Carlile, have received in Bishop 
Watson's 'Apology for the Bible 1 their plainest and 
most satisfactory confutation; 

V. That the argument deduced from Analogy of Systems, 

as pointing to the same Author (so often beautifully 
touched, rather than developed, in the New Testament) 
has been admirably expanded by Bishop Butler; 

VI. That Paley in his Chapter on the 'Morality of the 

Gospel' , and So ame Jen yns (limited and qualified as 
he is by Dr. Maclaine) present us with a most 
perspicuous view of the Internal Evidence of Chris- 
tianity; and, 

VII. That the Inward Witness to it's influences has been 

unanswerably stated in ' Three Sermons' by the ex- 
cellent Dr. Watts. 



As this last Tract is upon that peace of min d which 
passeth all understanding, that secret joy with which a 
stranger intermeddleth not, it may be argued that, in a 
Volume professedly intended for the benefit of Unbelievers, 
it is wholly out of place. But, not to. observe that an op- 
portunity is thus afforded of rescuing- an important text 
ft John v. 10.) from the wild and dangerous delusions, to 
which it has given birth in weak or fantastic minds ; it may 
be remarked that, from the guilty industry with which 
Sceptical Traets have been recently disseminated, painful 
scruples may have been excited in the breasts even of the 
humble and the pious. It seemed wanting;, also, to com- 
plete the cycle of Christian evidence. 

I subjoin a Pleiad of personal Testimonies to the Sacred 
Yolume in question. 

Lord Bacon. 
*' There never was found in any age of the world either 
Ipshilosopher, or sect, or law, or discipline, which did so highly 
fga&L the public good as the Christian Faith." 

Selden. 

" There is no book, upon which we can rest in a dying 
moment, but the Bible." 

Sir Matthew Hale. 
" There is no book like the Bible, for excellent wisdom, 
learning, and use." 

Milton. 

."There are no songs comparable to the Songs of Zion, 
ao ©rations equal to those of the Prophets, and no politics like 
those which the Scriptures teach." 

The Hon. Robert Boyle. 
" It is a matchless volume : it is impossible we can study 
it too much, ot esteem it too highly." 

Locke. 

" It hath God for it's Author, Salvation for it's end, and 
Truth without any mixture of error for it's matter." 



( 7 ) 



Sir William Jones. 
" I have carefully, and regularly, perused these Holy 
Scriptures; and am of opinion that the Volume (independently 
of it's divine origin) contains more sublimity, purer morality, 
more important history, and finer strains of eloquence, than 
can be collected from all other books, in whatever language 
they may have been written". 

Let these, the unbiassed conclusions of Seven of the 
most illustrious English Laymen, be duly contrasted with the 
frivolous or blasphemous levities of vulgar Scepticism ; and 
the reader will find no difficulty in choosing between the 
blackness of darkness, which the latter offers to his accep- 
tance, and the life and immortality brought to light by the 
Gospel, 



F. W. 



REASONS 

OF THE 

CHRISTIAN'S HOPE; 

ABRIDGED 
FROM THE CONCLUSION OF 

Dr. LELANDs 

View of the Principal Deistical Writers, 
OF ENGLAND, 

OF THE 

SEVENTEENTH and EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES. 



By the Rev. FRANCIS WRANGHAM. 



I know, in whom I have believed. 

(2 Tim. 1. 12.; 



[Only Fifty Copies on Demy 8to.] 



a820> 



AD VER TISEMENT. 



— — 

The learned and luminous Dr. J. Leland ably refuted the infidel so- 
phistries of Tindal, Morgan, Mr Henry Dodwell, and Lord 
Bolingbroke as they successively made their appearance. His 
reply to TindaVs ' Christianity as Old as the Creation' was first 
published in two volumes, Svo. in 1733 Four years afterward, 
he gave consecutively to the world (in two volumes, Svo., also ) his 
* Divine Authority of the Old and New Testament asserted/ 
in answer to the false reasonings of Morgan's ' Moral Philoso- 
pher.' These works justly procured for him marks of the highest 
respect from the most eminent Members of the Established Chufch. 
In 1 74i he exposed, in two Letters separately printed. Dodwell's 
anonymous and disingenuous pamphlet entitled, ' Christianity not 
founded on Arsrument ;' and, ml753, came out his ' Reflexions 
upon the late Lord Bolingbroke's Letters On the Study and 
Use of History, &c ' 

After having thus vanquished the principal Anti- Christian Authors in 
single combat, he proceeded in 1754 to attack them collectively in his 
admirable 4 View of the principal Deistical Writers' of Eng- 
land, of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries ; in which he 
gave not onlij a short analysis and exposure of their several schemes 
as far as the cause of Revelation was concerned , but also an account 
of their most able antagonists, and a valuable Appendix of 
Reflexions, which has supplied the substance of the subjoined 
Tract In this performance, beside giving a compressed summary of 
his previms productions, he examines the specious and illogical 
statements of Lord Herbert of Cherhury, Hobbes, Charles Blount, 
Mr. Tofand. the Earl of Shaftesbury, Antony Collins, Woolston, 
Chuh'>, the iuthors of 1 Hie Resurrection of Jesus considered/ 
and ' Deism fairly stated and ully vindicated/ and finally (in 
a Supplement, published m 1756 )the three last Volumes of Boling- 
broke's Works, which had then recently been edited by Mallet, 
and the Philosophical Essay* of Mr Hume, Of these two ele~ 
gant ind insi Hons writers the first, in addition to the attempt 
made in his * Letters on History' against God's moral attributes, 
fyc had proceeded even to question the immortality of the soul and 
a future state of retribution; and the latter, in his * Essay on 
Miracles/ had endeavoured to shake one of the main pillars of 
Christianity. ' 

Dr. Leland, after providentially recovering from a violent fever when 
he was upward of seventy years old, had the happiness of being 
spared to complete, in two Volumes, 4Jo. his last and greatest 
labour entitled, ' The Advantage and the Necessity of the 
Christian Revelation, Sec.' • and died in 1766, at the age of 
seventy-five. 

A Collection of his 1 Sermons' was subsequently published in four 
volumes, Svo. 

F. W 

February 14, 1820. 



A TRACT, &c. 



JOeISTS maybe divided, principally, into two classes, 
They are either such as, taking it for granted that 
Christianity has been proved to be an imposition, reject 
it at a venture; or at most acquiesce in some slight ob- 
jections, and contenting themselves with general clamours 
against * priestcraft' and 1 imposture,' never think of exa- 
mining the evidences and nature of the religion itself : 
or, they are such as pretend to reject Christianity, be- 
cause after what they deem due examination, they con- 
ceive that they have discovered in it marks of falsehood. 
There is ground to apprehend, that the greater part of 
our modern Deists are of the former description. But 
few are willing to own, that this is their case. Whe- 
ther they have really made a free and diligent inquiry, 
or not, they would be thought to have done so, and not 
to have rejected the Christian revelation without good 
reasons. 

Of this sort professedly are those, who have appeared 
among us under the character of Deistical Writers. 
They have made a show of attacking Christianity by 
argument. But, though never writers expressed a 
greater admiration of themselves and contemp t of others, 
it may truly be affirmed that, taking them generally, 
they have had little to support their vaih-glorious pre- 
tensions : that no writers ever acted a part more dis- 
ingenuous : that, while they have setup for advocates of 
Natural Religion in opposition to Revealed, many of 
them have endeavoured to subvert the main articles 
even of Natural Religion itself, and have used argu- 
ments which, if correct, would banish all religion out of 
the world: that they have often put on a show of great 
regard for genuine Christianity, whilst at the same time 
they have used their utmost efforts to subvert it's autho- 
rity : that instead of exhibiting it fairly as it is, they 



( « ) 

have by misrepresentation and abuse treated the Holy 
Scriptures in a manner which would not have been en- 
dured, if put in practice against other ancient writ- 
ings of any reputation whatever : that, with regard to 
the extraordinary attestations of Christianity, they have 
advanced prmciples,which would be accounted absolutely 
•ridiculous if applied to other facts, and which really 
tend to destroy the credit of all past facts altogether : 
and, finally, that never were there writers more incon- 
sistent with themselves and with one another, or more 
obviously tainted with obstinate prepossessions and pre- 
judices. Xow should not all this naturally create sus- 
picions with respect to the goodness of a cause, which 
stands in need of such management ? And yet it is to 
be apprehended, that many of those who laugh at others 
for relying upon their Christian teachers, are ready to 
resign themselves implicitly to their own Deistical guides, 
and to admit even their illiberal jests and indecent 
sarcasms as arguments not to be gainsaid! 

Of the objections, which have created some of the 
strongest prejudices s gainst Christianity, several are such 
as cannot be properly urged against it with any appear- 
ance of reason at all. Such are those drawn from the 
abuses and corruptions which have been introduced 
contrary to it's original design, or from the ill conduct 
of many of it's professors and ministers. For whilst 
the doctrines of the Gospel, as taugnt by Christ and his 
Apostles and delivered in the Scriptures, may be de- 
monstrated to be of a most admirable nature and ten- 
dency, and the truth of it's facts is sufficiently esta- 
blished, the reason for embracing it still holds good : 
and to reject what is in itself excellent, because of abuses 
and corruptions, which (as some of it's very adversaries 
acknowledge) are not justly chargeable upon it, is a 
conduct irreconcileable with the dictates of good sense. 
The same observation may be made with regard to the 
objection drawn from it's not having been universally 
promulgated. For if the evidences brought to prove 
that it is a divine revelation are valid, then it's not 
having been made known to ail mankind can never prove 
the contrary. To assert this, indeed, would be to argue 
from a thing, the reasons of which, we do not know, 
against the truth and certainty of a thing which we da 



( 7 ) 

know, and of which we are able to bring sufficient testi- 
mony. 

The only objections therefore, fairly adducible against 
Christianity, are either those which tend to show that 
the attestations given to it's Facts are not to be de- 
pended upon, or those by which it is evinced from the 
Nature of the Revelation itself, that it is unworthy of 
God. And, accordingly, both these have been at- 
tempted. But whosoever will impartially consider the 
writings of the Deists, and compare them with those 
of their opponents, will find how little the former have 
advanced on either of these heads, that is really to the 
purpose. 

The Facts attesting Christianity carry in them such 
manifest proofs of supernatural interposition, that few, 
if any, have ever owned the truth of those facts, and 
yet denied the divine origin of the Gospel-revelation. 
Those facts, therefore, it's adversaries have chiefly 
laboured to discredit. But it has been clearly shown, 
that the evidence produced in their favour is at least as 
great as could reasonably be expected for any past facts 
whatsoever; that never was there any evidence, all 
things considered, more worthy of belief ; and that the 
accounts of it have been transmitted to us by a con- 
veyance for sureness and uninterruptedness hardly to 
be paralleled. To all this, little has been opposed, 
except unproved charges of fraud, or general remarks 
upon the mconclusiveness of moral evidence and the 
uncertainty of human testimony ! 

As to the arguments urged against Christianitv from 
the Nature of the Revelation itself, these must relate 
either to it's Doctrines, or to it's Laws. Now, with re- 
spect to the latter, it cannot reasonably be denied, that 
it's Moral Precepts have a manifest tendency to promote 
the practice of piety and virtue, and the peace and good 
order of the world. And they are enforced by motives 
the most powerful in their operation, and the best fitted 
to work upon the nature of man. As therefore the 
moral precepts of Christianity cannot be justly cen- 
sured, a clamour has been raised against it's Positive 
restitutions; Yet it has often been proved, that these 
( km itive institutions, taken in their primitive purity, are 
admirably fitted to promote the great end of all religion 



( 8 ) 

by strengthening our obligations to a holy life. And 
this some of the most noted Deistical writers have not 
been able to deny. 

The only objection, then, which remains, is against 
the Doctrines of Christianity. And before this can be 
properly brought to bear, two things are to be proved : 

1. That the Doctrines objected against are doctrines 
of the original religion taught by Christ and his Apos- 
tles, and delivered in the Scriptures; and 

2. That these Doctrines, as there taught, are really 
contrary to reason. For a doctrine may be attended 
with considerable difficulties and obscurity, and yet may 
really not be contrary to reason. This is, evi- 
dently, the case with respect to several important prin- 
ciples of what is called ' Natural Religion.' The diffi- 
culty attending any doctrine, from our imperfect capacity 
of conceiving it, is no satisfactory argument against it's 
truth, if we have otherwise sufficient evidence to convince 
us of it's truth ; and that evidence is supplied by it's 
being delivered in a revelation proved to be divine. For 
to acknowledge a divine revelation to have been given, 
and yet to receive nothing upon the credit of it, nothing 
but what we can prove to be true independently of that 
revelation, is most absurd and inconsistent. It is to pay 
no greater regard to a thing on account of it's being 
divinely revealed, than: if it had not been revealed at all. 
In this case, what is said by a person,, who cannot be 
supposed to have been prejudiced in favour of Christi- 
anity, appears to be very reasonable; viz. that "when 
persons have received the Christian Revelation for ge- 
nuine after sufficient examination of it's external and 
internal proofs, and have found nothing that makes it 
inconsistent with itself, nor that is repugnant to any of 
those divine truths which reason and the works of God 
demonstrate to them, such persons will never set up 
reason in contradiction to it on account of things plainly 
taught but incomprehensible as to their manner of being; 
if they did, their reason would be false and deceitful ; 
they would cease to be reasonable men.*" And else- 
where, after having observed that we cannot be obliged 
to believe against reason, he adds, that when a revelation 



* Bolingbroke. 



( » ) 

has passed through, the necessary trials, " it is to be 
received with the most profound reverence, with the most 
entire submission, and with the most unfeigned thanks- 
giving. Reason has exercised her whole prerogative 
then, and delivers us over to faith. To believe before 
all these trials, or to doubt after them, is alike unrea- 
sonable.*" 

Let me then seriously expostulate with the Deist, and 
beseech him to reflect whether in endeavouring to abolish 
Christianity he acts a wise and reasonable part ; and 
what is like to be the effect of his conduct, both with 
regard to Himself, and to the Public. 

And, first, with regard to Himself: 

Let him consider, that the case now before him is not 
a matter of mere indifference, or even of small import- 
ance. His own most essential interests are nearly con- 
cerned. If the Gospel be divine, to reject it will involve 
him in the greatest guilt, and expose him to the greatest 
danger. Should it in fact be found, that he has rejected 
a revelation attested by God himself, that he has poured 
contempt upon the Saviour of mankind, slighted the 
authority of his laws and the offers of his grace, despised 
his gracious promises, and set at nought his aweful de- 
nunciations — surely he has reason, in that case, to appre- 
hend the severest results of the divine displeasure. 
Whatever favourable allowances may be made to those 
who have never heard of the Gospel, or have enjoyed no 
opportunity of receiving it in it's original purity, it is 
obvious that such as have had it's evidences plainly 
laid before them, and yet have shut their eyes against 
the heavenly light, are in a most perilous condition. 
And though it may be said, that this is immediately to 
be understood of those who lived in the age when it was 
first published, it yet holds in proportion with respect to 
those of after-ages. It bears internal marks, indeed, of 
having been designed by G od for the blessing of all ages ; 
and accordingly he has provided that both it's doctrines 
and laws, and an account of the supernatural attestations 
given to it, should be transmitted downward in the most 
satisfactory manner. The obligation therefore incum- 
bent upon all, to whom it is made known, to receive 



* Bolingbroke. 



( io ) 

and submit to it, and consequently the guilt of rejecting 
it, still subsists. 

Examine tiie Revelation itself. Could you possibly 
expect a Revelation given for nobler purposes, than to 
instruct us to form the most worthy notions of the divine 
perfections, to set before us the whole. of our duty in it's 
just extent, to state to us the terms of our acceptance 
with God, and to assure us of his readiness to restore 
11? to his favour upon our unfeigned repentance ? Could 
you possibly expect a Revelation containing precepts 
more pure, or enforced by weightier motives, or more 
judiciously adapted to promote the cause of virtue 
and righteousness? Or could any Revelation, sup- 
posing a Revelation really given, be attended with more 
illustrious attestations ? The accounts of the miracles 
wrought are accompanied with a degree of evidence 
sufficient to satisfy any unprejudiced mind, an evidence 
which must be admitted except all past facts are to be 
disbelieved, and which in any other case you would not 
yourselves hesitate to admit. If it contains some doc- 
trines attended with difficulties relating to things whicli 
surpass our comprehension, it cannot be denied that 
there are also several things in philosophy which the 
wisest and most acute of scholars think it reasonable to 
believe, though they are liable to perhaps inexplicable 
objections.* 

With some, alas ! it is to be feared, the true reason 
for rejecting the gospel is their hostility to it's 
laws. This is the condemnation, said our Saviour, that 
light is come into the world; but men have loved darkness 
rather than light, because their deeds are evil. This, 
however, is to make the very excellence of the Gospel a 
reason for rejecting it. The best of men in all ages have 
owned the necessity of keeping the appetite^ and passions 
within proper bounds. And such is the great design of 
the Christian law. Yet it's precepts are not carried to 
an unreasonable degree of rigour : it allows those appe- 
tites and passions to be gratified within the bounds of 

* Hume himself asserts, " that no priestly dogmas ever shocked 
common sense so much as the infinite divisibility of matter, with 
it's consequences/'— Yet this has not hindered the ablest mathe- 
matician from believing it to be demonstrably true. And he 
gives some other instances of the like kind. 



( 11 ) 

temperance and innocence. A life, indeed, led in con- 
formity to the gospel, would assuredly be the most 
delightful life in the world. It tends to improve and 
enlarge the social affections, to inspire universal bene- 
volence, to render men useful in every relation, and to 
control the baleful feelings of envy, hatred, and revenge, 
which carry torment and bitterness in their very nature. 
It inculcates a rational piety and devotion toward God, 
produces an entire resignation to his will, and refreshes 
and cheers the soul with a consciousness of the divine 
approbation. To this add the joys arising from all the 
wonders of divine goodness, the charms of redeeming 
love, the glorious promises of the new covenant, the 
promised influences of the Holy Spirit, and the trans- 
porting prospects which are opened before us — a 
blessed resurrection, and immortal life ! Oh ! of what 
valuable privileges, what divine satisfactions, does the 
Deist deprive himself by his infidelity ! And what has 
he in exchange, but perplexing doubts and gloomy 
prospects, and (what he will hardly perhaps be able, un- 
der any circumstances, entirely to dismiss from his mind) 
anxious forebodings, marring all the comfort and tran- 
quillity of life ! 

And what must, in all probabillt}', be the consequences 
of such conduct with regard to the Public ? There are 
great complaints of a dissoluteness of manners, which, 
seems to be growing among us. In this, the interests of 
the community are very deeply concerned. When once 
corruption spreads through society, it must necessa- 
rily be attended with a perversion of all order, and sap 
the very foundation of the general glory and happiness. 
For, in proportion as vice prevails, it produces a neglect 
of honest industry ; trade consequently decays, fraud 
and violence increase, the reverence of oaths is lost, 
and all the ties which bind mankind together are in 
danger of being dissolved. Machiav el himself has de- 
cided, that 4 a free government cannot be long main- 
tained, when once a people are become generally cor- 
rupt.' Every true friend, therefore, of public order 
and liberty must wish that the vicious appetites and 
passions of mankind may be kept under proper control. 
And nothing so well answers this end as religion,. 



( 12 ) 

"Without it's influence, indeed, civil laws would be fouhcl 
feeble restraints : nor was there ever any civilised go- 
vernment, which did not adopt religion for it's sup- 
port.* Xow it may easily be proved, that no religion 
is so well fitted for answering all these purposes as the 
Christian. Mr. Hume himself, speaking of the received 
notion, that " the Deity will inflict punishments on 
vice and bestow rewards on virtue," say» that " those 
who attempt to disabuse men of such prejudices, may 
for augut he knows be good reasoners, but he cannot 
allow tiiem to be good citizens and politicians ; since 
they fjj ee men from one restraint upon their passions, 
and mike the infringement of the laws of equity and 
society in one respect more easy and secure." And 
Bolirrgbroke, in his remarks on those who ' contrived 
religion for the sake of government,' observes that 
" they saw the public external religion would not an- 
swer their end, nor enforce effectually the obligations 
of virtue and morality, without the doctrine of future 
re vards and punishments." That doctrine, he adds, 
" has so great a tendency to enforce the civil laws, and to 
restrain the vices of men, that reason, which (as he pre- 
tends) cannot decide for it on principles of natural theo- 
logy, will not decide against it on principles of good 
policy." Nay, he even goes so far as to say, that " if 
the conflict between virtue and vice in the great com- 

*- Lord Bolingbroke observes, that " the good effects of main- 
taining and the bad effects of neglecting religion, were extremely 
visible in the whole course of the Roman government — That though 
the Roman religion established by Numa was very absurd, yet 6y 
keeping up an awe of superior power, and the belief of a Provi- 
dence ordering the course of events, it produced all the marvellous 
effects which Machiavel (after Poiybius, Cicero, and Plutarch) 
ascribes to it." And he adds, that " the neglect of religion was a 
principal cause of the evils, which Rome afterward suttered. 
Religion decayed, and the state decayed with her." If then even 
a fuse religion, by 'keeping up an awe of superior, power and die 
belief of a Providence,' had so advantageous an influence on the 
prosperity of the state, and the ' neglect of religion' brought such 
«vils upon it ; can these writers possibly be regarded as true 
friends to trie public, who take so much pains to subvert a religion 
established upon he most solid foundations, and to set men loose 
from ' the awe of superior power and the belief of a Providence 
ordering the course of events,' and whose obvious object and ch- 
^savour is to leave us without any religion at all ? 



( 13 ) 

monwealth of mankind was not regulated by religious and 
civil institutions, human life would be intolerable." 

What real gOod to mankind therefore, I may justly 
ask, can the Deist propose by endeavouring to degrade 
the ministry and the Ordinances of Christianity, to sub- 
vert it's divine authority, and thus to destroy it*s influ- 
ence on the consciences of mankind? Can he hope to 
benefit the cause of virtue, by taking away those motives 
wliich most forcibly engage men to the practice of it? 
Or can he imagine that he shall best check licentious- 
ness, by removing it's most powerful restraints? If it 
be difficult to control human corruption, even With all 
the aids which religion supplies, what might be expected, 
if nien Were left to gratify their passions without any 
such aid at all? Surely then, however unfavourable 'to 
Christianity the private sentiments of the Deist may 
be, he ought for the sake of the public to conceal them, 
if he would approve himself a true lover of hig country ; 
and not, On the contrary, take pains to propagate prin- 
ciples, which in their consequences must have the worst 
influence on it's cOmfort and welfare. If what Lord Bo- 
lingbrOke asserts is true, that f' no religion ever ap- 
peared in the world, whose natural tendency was so 
much directed to promote the peace and happiness of 
mankind as the Christian religion, considered as taught 
by Christ and his Apostles ;"| with what consistency can 
that man pretend to a concern for the general happiness, 
who uses his utmost efforts to subvert it by representing 
it's most important motives to virtue as idle bugbears? 

Let me now address myself to those, who profess to 
value themselves upon the name of Christians ; a name 
expressive of the most sacred obligations, the most va- 
luable privileges, and the most sublime hopes. But of 
little advantage will be the name, without the true spirit 
and practice, of Christianity. And it is impossible for 
any friend of mankind to observe without grief, what 
numbers there are who would take it ill not to be ac- 
counted Christians, that yet seem little disposed to act 
s uit ably to that glorious character. 

Many nominal Christians, indeed, scarcely ever be- 
stow a serious thought upon those things, which it is 
the great design of the Gospel to inculcate. How incon- 



( 14 ) 

si-stent is tliis conduct? To profess to believe that God 
lias sent his Son from Heaven -with disclosures of the 
highest interest, in which our everlasting salvation 
is at stake, and yet to discard these things from their 
thoughts, and to prefer the veriest trifles hefore them ! 
Surely no pretence of worldly business, though it is our 
duty to be diligent in it, can justify such a flagrant neg- 
lect. Much less will a hurry of diversions be admitted 
as a sufficient excuse. And yet how many are there, 
"whose time is taken tip in petty amusements, and who 
make what, at any rate, should only be the entertainment 
of a vacant hour the occupation of their lives ! It is to 
be lamented, that this is too often the case with persons 
distinguished by their birth, fortunes, and figure in the 
w r orld. But can reasonable creatures persuade them- 
selves, that by such a trifling away of their time they 
answer the end, for which the noble powers of reason 
were bestowed upon them? Much less can Christians 
believe, that they were formed for no higher purposes. 
How often are the duties of the church and the closet, 
those of the social relations, the care of children and of 
families, and kind offices toward the indigent and the 
afflicted, postponed for the sake of low indulgences; an 
immoderate pursuit of which tends, even when it is least 
hurtful, to produce a disinclination to serious thought, 
and to impair the relish for every thing truly excellent 
and improving! 

But too often, alas ! what are called ' diversions' lay 
snares for innocence, and open the way to scenes of 
dissoluteness and debauchery i Too often what is termed 
* play' is carried to such an excess as to squander for- 
tunes, which might be employed to the most valuable 
purposes ! To which may be added, it's natural ten- 
dency to excite unworthy passions, and to produce the 
habits of fraud and falsehood and an illiberal thirst of 
gain. > 

IT ithont actual observation one would scarcely think 
there could be persons, who profess to acknowledge 
the divine authority of the Gospel, and yet live in an 
habitual neglect of it's public worship. There never 
was, assuredly, an institution more wisely calculated 
for advancing the inteests of virtue, than that of 



( 15 ) 

setting apart one day in a week for the express purpose 
of instructing the people in the knowledge of their duty, 
and exhorting them to the practice of it; and yet 
many, who still however call themselves Christians, seem 
to affect an open disregard or even contempt of it. But it 
is not easy to conceive, what reasonable pretence can be 
alleged for such a conduct. Will they aver, that they 
deem it a reflexion upon their sense, to pay their pub- 
lic homage to their Creator and Redeemer 5 and to make 
an open profession of their regard for that religion, which 
yet they would be thought to believe ? Or, have they 
such an aversion from the exercises of religion, that the 
spending of an hour or two in solemn acts of adoration, 
in prayer and thanksgiving, is a weariness which they 
cannot endure? What is this, but to avow the great de- 
generacy of their minds, and their want of a proper 
disposition for the employment which best deserves the 
attention of reasonable beings? Or, do they affect a high 
regard for moral virtue, as an excuse for neglecting 
positive institutions ? And will any man, who knows 
the true state of things among us, take upon himself to 
declare that the growing neglect of the ordinances 
of religion has helped to promote the practice of 
virtue ; or that men's morals are generally improved, 
since they became more indifferent to those sacred 
solemnities? Nothing is more evident to any one, who 
impartial!} considers the nature of those ordinances and 
solemnities, than that a due observance of them (beside 
being a public avowal of our faith in God, and in the 
Lord Jesus Christ) has a manifest tendency to exercise 
and strengthen in us those good affections, which na- 
turally lead to a holy life. 

B^t there are also Christians, on the other hand, who 
seem to flatter themselves that a mere outward attend- 
ance on these ordinances will be alone sufficient, though 
they a\ the same time indulge themselves in habits con- 
tra 3 to the rules of virtue and morality. All expedi- 
ents, however, for reconciling the practice of dissolute- 
ness or dishonesty with the faith and hope of the Gospel 
are obviously absurd. The most inconsistent of all 
characters is, a wicked Christian ; which, to any one 
acquainted with the true nature of Christianity, must 



( 16- ) 



appear to be a contradiction in terms. For nothing can 
he more evident, than that a vicious life is the most 
manifest contradiction to the whole design of the Gos- 
pel To profess to hope for salvation from the Re- 
deemer, and yet to neglect the necessary terms, with- 
out which (we are assured) salvation is not to be 
obtained ! To believe that he came to destroy the 
works of the Devil, and yet to allow themselves in 
those very works ! What an unamiable representa- 
tion would such persons aiiord of the Gospel, if a 
Judgement were to be formed of it from their conduct ! 
You would perhaps conceive a horror at the thought of 
"blaspheming Christ, and openly renouncing all hope of 
salvation from him : and yet the plain tendency of your 
practice is, to harden the hearts of infidels, and give 
occasion to the enemies of Christianity to blaspheme. 
And should not you tremble to think of being charged 
as accessary to the indignities cast upon that dread 
name into which you were baptized, and on that ex- 
cellent system, the divine origin of which you profess 
to believe I Surety it highly concerns you, for your 
own sakes and that of the Gospel, instantly to set 
about reforming a conduct irreconcileable at once to 
all the rules of reason, and to your own most evident 
interests. Implore the mercy of God through Jesus 
Christ, and the assistances of his grace, which shall not 
be wanting to the truly penitent ; and show yourselves to 
be Christians by endeavouring to get your souls effectually 
brought under the influence of that religion, the natural 
tendency of which is to inspire ingenuous hope, and 
confidence, and joy. 

I shall conclude, with laying a few advices before 
those who take upon them the name of Christians, and 
who profess to receive the Gospel as of divine autho- 
rity. 

1. And, first, let us be thankful to God for our glori- 
ous privileges. It is our unspeakable advantage, that 
we are not left to the uncertain light of our own un- 
assisted reason in a matter of such importance. We have 
God himself instructing us by his word concerning his 
perfections and his providence, displaying all the riches 
•f his grace toward perishing sinners, setting our duty 



( 17 ) 

before us in it's just extent, animating us to the practice 
of it by exceeding great and precious promises, and assur- 
ing us of the aids of his Holy Spirit to assist our weak 
endeavours. A happiness is provided for us, as the 
result of our patient continuance in well-doing, tran- 
scending all that we are now able to express, or even to 
conceive. These things certainly call for every return 
of love and gratitude within our power. Our civil 
liberties are justly to be valued; but our privileges, as 
Christians, are of a far loftier and nobler character. 

2. A natural consequence of this is, that we should 
treasure the faith which we profess, and endeavour to 
make ourselves well acquainted with it, as it is con- 
tained in the Holy Scriptures. There are to be found 
those discoveries, which God was pleased to make of 
his will at sundry times and in divers manners by the 
mouth of his holy prophets; and there is that last and 
most perfect Revelation, which he gave by his well- 
beloved Son. The very discourses of that Son am 
there transmitted to us, with an account of his wonder^ 
ful works, his pure life, and his most perfect example. 
Let us, therefore, search the Scriptures, which are able 
to make us wise unto salvation. And if we meet with, 
difficulties in them, as may justly be expected in ancient 
writings relating to a great variety of matters (some of 
them of a most extraordinary nature) let not this dis- 
courage us. For beside that by carefully examining 
the Holy Volume, and making a proper use of tha 
helps afforded us, we may have many of those difficul- 
ties cleared up, it must be observed that the thing* 
most necessary to be known are most plainly re-' 
vealed ; and those are the things, which we should espe- 
cially labour to get impressed upon our consciences 
and our hearts. 

But it should be our principal concern, that our 
whole conversation be such as becometh the Gospel of 
Christ. He must be an utter stranger to Christianity, 
who is not sensible that it both injoins, and in the 
highest degree encourages, a virtuous practice. . Let 
us therefore, as we would secure our own salvation 
and advance the glory of our Blessed Redeemer, en- 
deavour to adorn it's doctrines by a * godly, righteous, 



( 13 ) 

arid sober life/ A mere form of godliness will Hot d@ 
sufficient : the energy and beauty of religion must ap- 
pear in our whole temper and demeanour. And oh ! 
how amiable is the idea of a Christian acting up to the 
obligations of Christianity ! 

Consider him in the exercise of piety and devotion 
toward God, diligent in attending on the ordinances of 
religion, filled with a profound reverence and devout 
admiration of the Supreme Excellence, his soul at one 
time rising in grateful emotions to his sovereign Bene- 
factor, at another exercising an unrepining submission 
to his will and a steady dependence on his providence, 
and always rejoicing in Christ Jesus as his Saviour, 
in the wonders of his love and the beauties of his 
example. 

But the religion of a real Christian is not confined to 
immediate acts of devotion. It animates his whole con- 
duct. It teaches him to be strictly just and honest, 
to behave suitably in the conjugal, the parental, and 
the filial relation, and to fulfil all the duties of 
civil and social life. It tends to suppress the malevo- 
lent affections, and to diffuse a sweetness and com- 
placency throughout his whole behaviour. It makes 
him ready to bear with the infirmities of others, to 
rejoice in their happiness and endeavour to promote 
it, and instead of being overcome of evil, to overcome 
evil with good. Behold him in another view, as exer- 
cising a noble self-government, keeping his appetites 
and passions under a regular subjection to the laws of 
reason and morality, disdaining to defile himself with 
vicious excesses ; yet partaking at the same time, with 
moderation and gratitude, of the innocent enjoyments of 
life, and having every enjoyment heightened hy the 
glorious prospects before him. To which it may 
be added, that religion inspires him with a true 
sense of honour, as signifying an abhorrence of every 
thing base and impure, and with a constancy and 
fortitude not to be bribed or terrified from the path of 
duty. 

Such a character, in every condition, as far as it 
has an opportunity of exerting itself, cannot but attract 
universal approbation. But when it is found in con- 



( 19 ) 

junction witli nobility of extraction, dignity of station, 
and affluence of fortune, what a glory does it diffuse ! 

It may be observed, in the last place, that those who 
have a true zeal for Christianity, are bound by every 
obligation to endeavour to promote it in their families, 
by carefully training up their children to an early ac- 
quaintance with it's doctrines audit's precepts. It is of 
the utmost consequence to inspire the tender mind with 
a reverence for things sacred, a love of virtue, and an 
abhorrence of baseness and impurity. The necessity 
of a pious education, and the benefits arising from it, 
have been acknowledged by the best and wisest of men 
in all ages. And great in this respect is the advantage 
of those, who enjoy the light of the Gospel-revelation. 
Hence it highly concerns Christian parents, to labour 
that their children may have the word of Christ dwell- 
ing richly in them. Young minds, thus filled with 
the great objects of religion, possess the most effectual 
preservative against the vanities and follies of a sinful 
world, and the most animating motives to the practice 
of every thing amiable and good. And for v/ant of such 
an indispensable preparation it is, that many among us, 
though bearing the name of Christians, are shamefully 
ignorant even of the first elements of Christianity. Is it 
to be wondered at, if such persons become an easy 
prey to seducers, and are speedily drawn into infide- 
lity and debauchery, losing at once every noble senti- 
ment and every generous affection? And in that case, 
the higher their condition, the more pernicious is the 
contagion of their example. Intead of being the orna- 
ment and the support, indeed, they become the disgrace 
and the pest of the community. 

On the contrary, how agreeable is it to behold children 
bred up in the fear of God, their minds carefully stored 
with sound principles and good habits ! Those of the 
one sex, not only formed under the influence of religion 
to a delicate sense of purity and virtue, and to that 
gentleness of manners and behaviour, which has always 
been esteemed their loveliest ornament, but also 
to the hope of an immortal inheritance : and those of 
the other trained up by proper discipline to a ra- 
tional piety, the due government of their appetites a«4 



( 20 ) 

passions, and a manly sense of whatever is honourable 
and excellent! In short, whatsoever tilings are true, 
whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, 
whatsoever things are pure, ivhatsoever things are lovely, 
whatsoever things are of good report ; if there be any vir- 
tue, mid if there b$ auy 2 }r ^ise — thinking ay, these 
things? 



THE 

TRUTH 

OF THE 

SCRIPTURE HISTORY; 

ABRIDGED FROM 

MR. LESLIE'S 

SHORT AND EASY METHOD WITH THE DEISTS j 

AND HIS 

TRUTH OF CHRISTIANITY DEMONSTRATED. 

By the Rev. FRANCIS WRANGHAM. 

Let all the nations be gathered together, and all the people be assem- 
bled : Who among them can declare this, and show us former things ? 
Let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified ; or let 
them hear and say, " IT is truth." — Isa. xliii. 9. 

[Only Fifty Copies on Demy 8uo. J 



1820. 



205449 
w!13 



AD VER TISEMENT. 



" In the former of these Tracts the argument is so short 
and clear, that the meanest capacity may understand it, and 
so forcible that no man lias yet been found able to resist it. 
When it was first published, some attempts were made ; but 
they soon came to nothing. It is, briefly, this. The Chris- 
tian Religion consists of facts and of doctrines, each depend- 
ing on the other; so that, if the facts are true, the doctrines 
also must be true. Thus, for example, the Resurrection of 
Jesus Christ is a fact; our resurrection is a doctrine: admit 
the fact, and the doctrine cannot be denied. The Ascension 
of Jesus Christ is another fact ; his return to judge the world 
is a doctrine : if the fact is true, the doctrine must be so like- 
wise. For (argues an Apostle) if the doctrine is not true, 
the fact must be false : if the dead rise not, then is not Christ 
raised." 

Now, the facts are here established by Four incontrovertible 
Marks. 

The above is extracted from the Rev. W. Jones' Preface to his 
edition of the Tract in question ; and wliat that excellent man has 
farther recorded, upon the authority of the late Dr. Berkeley, on 
the subject of Dr. Middleton's persevering hostility to this pub- 
lication, ought not to be omitted: 

" Feeling how necessary it was to his principles, that he 
should some way rid himself of Mr. Leslie's argument, he 
looked out for some false facts, to which these four Marks 
might be applied ; and this he did for twenty years together, 
without being able to find one." 

With regard to the history of the Author, a brief narrative may 
suffice. He was the son of a Bishop of Clogher, of a good Scotch 
family; and, as Chancellor of the Diocese of Connor, rendered 
himself highly obnoxious to the Irish papists by his ardent and 
able disputations. Want of sympathy in religion, however, did 
not alienate his allegiance from his infatuated Sovereign ( James 
II.) upon his abdication ; and he, accordingly, lost all his pre- 
ferments at the Revolution. 

A 2 



iv 



He afterward joined the Pretender in France, and accompanied 
him into Italy, with a view of converting him to Protestantism! 
But finding his endeavours ineffectual, and his treatment less 
cordial than he had a right to expect, he returned to Ireland, 
where he died in 1722. Two folio volumes were the result of his 
controversial labours. 

His second Tract contains Four additional Marks, " such as 
no other facts but those of Christ, how true soever, (not even 
those of Moses) either have had, or can have." The former 
set establish the evidence of the Christian Religion, the latter ex- 
hibit it's glory. 

" To those (to adopt Mr. Jones' closing observations) who 
take this little volume into their hands, I have only the follow- 
ing* short advice to give. I beseech them to remember that, if 
Christianity be true, it is tremendously true. All the great 
things, which this world can show, are as nothing in compa- 
rison of it. Heaven and Hell are the issue. It's facts, yet 
to come, are as certain as those that are past. For the trum- 
pet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised, (1 Cor. xv. 52.) ; 
the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the ^elements 
shall melt away xuith fervent heat (2 Pet. hi. 10.) ; the angels 
shall gather together the elect of Christ from the four winds 
(Matt. xxiv. 31 .) ; and every one of us shall give account of him- 
self to God. (Rom. xiv. 12.) A man must be stupified, if he 
can think on these things without fleeing from the wrath to 
come: and there is no way but in the belief of Christianity, 
which this book teaches." 

In the alterations, ichich I have made in these Tracts, I have 
laboured to divest the argument of all extraneous matter ; in order 
to render more obvious both it's continuity and it's conclusiveness ; 
and thus to gain for it the attention of those, whom a larger 
pamphlet might have deterred from the perusal. The accomplish- 
ment of my object may, perhaps, be inferred from the fact, that 
Twelve Editions of Ten Thousand Copies each have been recently 
circulated in different parts of the British Empire. 

F.W. 

June 11, 1820. 



SHORT AND EASY METHOD, 



DEAR SIR, 

" You are desirous, (you inform me) to receive from 
me some one topic of reason, which shall demonstrate 
the truth of the Christian Religion, and at the same time 
distinguish it from the impostures of Mahomet and the 
Heathen Deities : that our Deists may be brought to this 
test, and be obliged either to renounce their reason and 
the common reason of mankind, or to admit the clear 
proof from reason of the Revelation of Chiiist; which 
must be such a proof as no imposture can pretend to, 
otherwise it will not prove Christianity not to be an im- 
posture. And 6e you cannot but imagine (you add) that 
there must be such a proof, because every truth is in it- 
self one : and therefore one reason for it, if it be a true 
reason, must be sufficient ; and, if sufficient, better than 
many: because multiplicity creates confusion, especially 
in weak judgements." 

Sir, you have imposed a hard task upon me ; I wish 
I could perform it. For, though every truth be one, yet 
our sight is so feeble that we cannot always come to it 
directly, but by many inferences and layings of things 
together. But I think that, in the case before us, there 
is such a proof as you desire, and I will set it down as 
shortly and plainly as I can. 



( 6 ) 

I suppose then, that the truth of the Christian Doc- 
trines willl)e sufficiently evinced, if the matters of fact 
recorded of Christ in the Gospels are proved to be true ; 
for his miracles, if true, establish the truth of what he de- 
livered. The same may be said, with regard to Moses. 
If he led the children of Israel through the Red Sea, and 
did such other wonderful things as are recorded of him in 
the book of Exodus, it must necessarily follow that he 
was sent by God : these being the strongest evidences we 
can require, and which every Deist will confess he would 
admit, if he himself had witnessed their performance. 
So that the stress of this cause will depend upon the proof 
of the matters of fact. 

With a view, therefore, to this proof I shall proceed, 

1 . To lay down such Marks, as to the truth of matters 
of fact in general, that where they all meet, such matters 
of fact cannot be false j and, 

2. To show that they all do meet in the matters of fact 
of Moses, and of Christ j and do not meet in those reported 
of Mahomet and of the Heathen Deities, nor can possibly 
meet in any imposture whatsoever. 

1 . The Marks are these : 

(1.) That the fact be such, as mens outward senses can 
judge of; 

(II.) That it be performed publicly in the presence of 
witnesses j 

(III.) That there be public monuments and actions kept 
up in memory of it ; and, 

(IV.) That such monuments and actions be established 
and commence at the time of the fact. 

The two first of these Marks make it impossible for any 
false fact to be imposed upon men at the time, when it 
was said to be done, because every man's senses would 
contradict it. For example Suppose I should pretend 
that yesterday I divided the Thames, in the presence of 
all the people of London, and led the whole city over to 
Southwark on dry land, the water standing like a wall on 
each side. It would be morally impossible for me to con- 
vince the people of London, that this was true ; when every 
man, woman, and child could contradict me, and affirm 



( 7 ) 



that they had not seen the Thames so divided, nor been 
led over to Southwark on dry land. I take it, then, for 
granted (and, I apprehend, with the allowance of all the 
Deists in the world) that no such imposition could be put 
upon mankind at the time, when such matter of fact was 
said to be done. 

■ But the fact might be invented, when the men of that 
generation, in which it was said to be done, were all past 
and gone $ and the credulity of after-ages might be in- 
duced to believe, that things had been performed in earlier 
times, which had not !' 

From this the two latter Marks secure us, as much as 
the two first in the former case. For whenever such a fact 
was invented, if it were stated that not only public monu- 
ments of it remained, but likewise that public actions or 
observances had been kept up in memory of it ever since ; 
the deceit must be detected by no such monuments ap- 
pearing, and by the experience of every man, woman, and 
child, who must know that no such actions or observances 
had ever taken place. For example : — Suppose I should 
now fabricate a story of something done a thousand years 
ago, I might perhaps get a few persons to believe me j but 
if I were farther to add, that from that day to this every 
man at the age of twelve years had a joint of his little 
finger cut off in memory of it, and that (of course) every 
man then living actually wanted a joint of that finger, and 
vouched this institution in confirmation of it's truth. It 
would be morally impossible for me to gain credit in such 
a case, because every man then living could contradict 
me, as to the circumstance of cutting off a joint of the 
finger ; and that, being an essential part of my original 
matter of fact, must prove the whole to be false. 

2. Let us now come to the second point, and show 
that all these Marks do meet in the matters of fact of 
Moses, and of Christ $ and do not meet in those reported 
of Mahomet and of the Heathen Deities, nor can possibly 
meet in any imposture whatsoever. 

As to Moses, he (I take it for granted) could not have 
persuaded six hundred thousand men, that he had brought 
them out of Egypt by the Red Sea, fed them forty years 



( 8 ) 

with miraculous manna, &c. if it had not been true: be- 
cause the senses of every man, who was then alive, would 
have contradicted him. So that here are the two first 
Marks. 

For the same reason, it would have been equally impos- 
sible for him to have made them receive his Five Books as 
true, which related all these things as done before their 
eyes, if they had not been so done. Observe, how posi- 
tively he speaks to them (Deut. xi. 2 — 8.) " And know 
you this day, for I speak not with your children, which 
have not known and which have not seen the chastise- 
ment of the Lord your God, his greatness, his mighty 
hand, and his stretched-out arm, and his miracles 5 — but 
your eyes have seen all the great acts of the Lord, which 
he did," &c. Hence we must admit it to be impossible 
that these Books, if written by Moses in support of an 
imposture, could have been put upon the people who 
were alive at the time, when such things were said to be 
done. 

' But they might have been written in some age after 
Moses, and published as his!' 

To this I reply that, if it were so, it was impossible 
they should have been received as such ; because they 
speak of themselves as delivered by Moses, and kept in 
the ark from his time (Deut.xxxi. 24 — 26.) and statethat 
a copy of them was likewise deposited in the hands of the 
king, « f that he might learn to fear the Lord his God, to 
keep all the words of this law and these statutes to do 
them/' (Deut. xxn. 19.) Here these Books expressly 
represent themselves as being not only the civil history, 
but also the established municipal law Of the Jews, 
binding the king as well as the people. In what- 
ever age, therefore, after Moses they might have been 
forged, it was impossible they should have gained any 
credit 3 because they couldnotthen have been found either 
in the ark, or with the king, or any where else : and, when 
they were first published, every body must know that they 
had never heard of them before. 

And they could still less receive them as their book of 
statutes, and the standing law of the land, by which they 
had all along been governed. Could any man at this day 



( 9 ) 

invent a set of Acts of Parliament for England, and make 
it pass upon the nation, as the only book of statutes which 
they had ever known ? As impossible was it for these 
Books, if written in any age after Moses, to have been re- 
ceived for what they declare themselves to be, viz. the mu- 
nicipal law of the Jews and for any man to have per- 
suaded that people, that they had owned them as their 
code of statutes from the time of Moses, that is, before 
they had ever heard of them ! Nay more — they must in- 
stantly have forgotten their former laws, if they could re- 
ceive these Books as such ; and as such only could they 
receive them, because such they vouched themselves to be. 
Let me ask the Deists but one short question, ' ' Was a 
book of sham -laws ever palmed upon any nation, since 
the world began V' If not, with what face can they say 
this of the law-books of the Jews ? Why will they affirm 
that of them, which they admit never to have happened 
in any other instance ? 

But they must be still more unreasonable. For the 
Books of Moses have an ampler demonstration of their 
truth, than even other law-books have : as they not only 
contain the laws themselves, but give an historical account 
of their institution and regular fulfilment : of the Pass- 
over, for instance, in memory of their supernatural pro- 
tection, upon the slaying of the first-born of Egypt ; the 
Dedication of the first-born of Israel, both of man and 
beast ; the preservation of Aaron's Rod which budded, of 
the pot of Manna, and of the brazen Serpent, which re- 
mained till the days of Hezekiah (2 Kings xviii. 4.) &c. 
And, beside these memorials of particular occurrences, 
there were other solemn observances, in general memory 
of their deliverance out of Egypt, &c. ; as their annual 
Expiations, their New-Moons, their Sabbaths, and their 
ordinary sacrifices : so that there were yearly, monthly, 
weekly, and daily recognitions of these things. The same 
Books likewise farther inform us, that the tribe of Levi 
was appointed and consecrated by God as his Ministers, 
by whom alone these institutions were to be celebrated ; 
that it was death for any others to approach the altar ; 
that their High-Priest wore a brilliant mitre and magni- 
ficent robes, with the miraculous Urim and Thummim in 



( io ) 



his breast-plate $ that at his word all the people were to 
go out, and to come in ; that these Levites were also their 
judges, even in all civil causes, &c. 

Hence therefore also, in whatever age after Moses they 
might have been forged, it was impossible they should 
have gained any credit : unless, indeed, the fabricators 
could have made the whole nation believe, in spite of their 
invariable experience to the contrary, that they had re- 
ceived these Books long before from their fathers ; had 
been taught them when they were children, and had 
taught them their own children ; that they had been cir- 
cumcised themselves, had circumcised their families, and 
uniformly observed their whole minute detail of sacrifices 
and ceremonies ; that they had never eaten any swine's 
flesh, or other prohibited meats ; that they had a splendid 
tabernacle, with a regular priesthood to administer in it 
(confined to one particular tribe) and a superintendent 
High-Priest, whose death alone could deliver those that 
had fled to the cities of refuge ; that these priests were 
their ordinary judges, even in civil matters, &c. — But this 
would surely have been impossible, if none of these things 
had been practised 5 and it would consequently have been 
impossible to circulate, as true, a set of Books which af- 
firmed that they had practised them, and upon that prac- 
tice rested their own pretensions to acceptance. So 
that here are the two latter Marks. 

( But (to advance to the utmost degree of supposition) 
these things might have been practised, prior to this al- 
leged forgery ; and those Books only deceived the nation, 
by making them believe that they were practised in me- 
mory of such and such occurrences, 3s were then invented V 

In this hypothesis (however groundless) the same im- 
possibilities press upon our notice, as before. For it im- 
plies, that the Jews had previously kept these observances 
in memory of nothing, or without knowing why they kept 
them ; whereas, in all their particulars, they strikingly 
express their original : as the Passover, instituted in me- 
mory of God's passing over the children of the Israelites, 
when he slew the first-born of Egypt, &c. 

Let us admit however, contrary both to probability and 
to matter of fact, that they did not know why they kept 



( 11 ) 



these observances ; yet was it possible to persuade them, 
that they were kept in memory of something, which they 
had never heard of before ? For example: — Suppose I 
should now forge some romantic story of strange things 
done a long while ago : and, in confirmation of this, 
should endeavour to convince the Christian world, that 
they had regularly from that period to this kept holy the 
first day of the week in memory of such or such a man, 
a Caesar or a Mahomet ; and had all been baptized in his 
name, and sworn by it upon the very book which I had 
then fabricated (and which, of course, they had never seen 
before) in their public courts of judicature; that this book 
likewise contained their law, civil and ecclesiastical, which 
they had ever since his time acknowledged, and no other. 
I ask any Deist, whether he thinks it possible that such a 
cheat could be received as the Gospel of Christians, or 
not ? — The same reason holds, with regard to the books 
of Moses ; and must hold with regard to every book, 
which contains matters of fact accompanied by the above- 
mentioned Four Marks. For these Marks conjunctively 
secure mankind from imposition, with regard to any false 
fact, as well in after-ages, as at the time when it was said 
to be done. 

Let me produce, as an additional and familiar illustra- 
tion, the Stonehenge of Salisbury-Plain. Almost every 
body has seen, or heard of it ; and yet nobody knows by 
whom, or in memory of what, it was set up. 

Now suppose I should write a book to-morrow, and state 
in it that these huge stones were erected by a Caesar or a 
Mahomet, in memory of such and such of their actions : 
and should farther add, that this book was written at the 
time when those actions were performed, and by the 
doers themselves or by eye-witnesses ; and had been con- 
stantly received as true, and quoted by authors of the 
greatest credit in regular succession ever since : that it was 
well known in England, and even injoined by Act of 
Parliament to be taught our children ; and that we ac- 
cordingly did teach it our children, and had been taught 
it ourselves when we were children : — would this, I de- 
mand of any Deist, pass current in England ? or rather 
should not I, or any other person who might insist upon 



( 12 ) 

it's reception, instead of being believed be ^ent to 
Bedlam? 

Let \is compare then this rude structure with the 
Stonehenge, as I may call it, or (( twelve stones'* set up 
at Gilgal. (Josh. iv. 6.) It is there said, that the reason 
why they were set up was that, when the children of the 
Jews in after ages should ask their meaning, it should be 
told them (iv. 20 — 22.) And the thing, in memory of 
which they were set up (the passage over Jordan) was 
such, as could not possibly have been imposed upon that 
people at the time, when it was said to be done ; it was 
not less miraculous, and from the previous notice, pre- 
parations, and other striking circumstances of it's per- 
formance (iii. 5. 15.) still more unassailable by the petty 
cavils of infidel sophistry, than their passage through the 
Red Sea. 

Now, to form our argument, let us suppose that there 
never was any such thing as that passage over Jordan; 
that these stones at Gilgal had been set up on some un- 
known occasion j and that some designing man in an 
after-age invented this book of Joshua, affirmed that it 
was written at the time of that imaginary event by Joshua 
himself, and adduced this Stonage as a testimony of it's 
truth. Would not every body say to him, " We know 
the Stonage very well, but we never before heard of this 
reason for it, nor of this book of Joshua ; where has it 
lain concealed all this while ? And where and how came 
you, after so long a period, to find it? Besides, it informs 
us that this passage over Jordan was solemnly directed to 
be taught our children, from age to age ; and, to that 
end, that they were always to be instructed in the mean- 
ing of this particular monument: bat we were never 
taught it ourselves, when we were children, nor did we 
ever teach it our children. And it is in the highest degree 
improbable, that such an emphatic ordinance should have 
been forgotten, during the continuance of so remarkable 
a pile of stones, set up expressly for the purpose of pre- 
serving it's remembrance." 

If then, for these reasons, no such fabrication could be 
put upon us, as to the Stonage in Salisbury-Plain ; how 
much less could it succeed, as to the Stonage at Gilgal ? 



( 13 ) 

If, where we are ignorant of the true origin of a mere 
naked monument, such a sham origin cannot be imposed, 
how much less practicable would it be to impose upon us 
in actions and observances, which we celebrate in memory 
of what we actually know ; to make us forget, what we 
have regularly commemorated ; and to persuade us, that 
we have constantly kept such and such institutions with 
reference to something, which we never heard of before ; 
that is, that we knew something, before we knew it! 
And, if we find it thus impossible to practise deceit, even 
in cases which have not the above Four Marks, how much 
more impossible must it be, that any deceit should be 
practised in cases, in which all these Four Marks meet! 

In the matters of fact of Christ likewise, as well as 
in those of Moses, these Four Marks are to be found. 
The reasoning indeed, which has been already advanced 
with respect to the Old Testament, is generally applica- 
ble to the New. The Miracles of Christ, like those of 
Moses, were such as men's outward senses could judge 
of ; and were performed publicly, in the presence of those 
to whom the Gospel-history of them, was addressed. 
And it is related, that " about three thousand*' at one 
time (Acts ii. 41.) and " about five thousand 0 at another 
(iv. 4.) were converted in consequence of what they them- 
selves saw achieved in matters, where it was impossible 
that they should have been deceived. Here, therefore, 
were the two first. Marks. 

And, with regard to the two latter, Baptism and the 
Lord's Supper were instituted as memorials of certain 
things, not in after-ages, but at the time when these 
things were said to be done ; and have been strictly ob- 
served, from that time to this, without interruption. 
Christ himself, also, ordained Apostles, &c. to preach 
and administer his Sacraments, and to govern his church 
i( even unto the end of the world." Now the Christian 
clergy are as notorious a matter of fact amongst us, as 
the tribe of Levi were among the Jews ; and as the 
era and object of their appointment are part of the Gos- 
pel-narrative, if that narrative had been a fiction of some 
subsequent age, at the time of it's fabrication no such 



( 14 ) 



order of men, deriving themselves from such an origin, 
could have been found; which would have effectually 
given the lie to the whole story. And the truth of the 
matters of fact of Christ being no otherwise asserted, 
than as there were at that time (whensoever the Deists 
will suppose the Gospel to have been fabricated) not only 
public Sacraments, but likewise a public clergy of his in- 
stitution to administer them, and it being impossible 
upon this hypothesis that there could be any such things 
then in existence, we must admit it to be equally impos- 
sible that the forgery should have been successful. Hence 
it was as impossible to have deceived mankind, in respect 
to these matters of fact, by inventing them in after-ages, 
as at the time when they were said to be done. 

The matters of fact, reported of Mahomet and of the 
Heathen Deities, do all want some of these Four Marks, 
by which the certainty of facts is established. Mahomet 
himself, as he tells us in his Koran (vi. &c.) pretended 
to no miracles ; and those, which are commonly related 
of him, pass even among his followers for ridiculous le- 
gends, and as such are rejected by their Scholars and 
Philosophers. They have not either of the two first 
Marks ; for his converse with the moon, his night-journey 
from Mecca to Jerusalem, and thence to Heaven, &c. 
were not performed before any witnesses j nor Was the 
tour, indeed, of a nature to admit human attestation : and 
to the two latter they do not even affect to advance any 
claim. 

The same may be affirmed, with little variation, of the 
stories of the Heathen Deities; of Mercury's stealing 
sheep, Jupiter's transforming himself into a bull, &c. 
beside the absurdity of such degrading and profligate ad- 
ventures. And accordingly we find, that the more en- 
lightened Pagans themselves considered them as fables 
involving a mystical meaning, of which several of their 
writers have endeavoured to give us the explication. It 
is true, these Gods had their priests, their feasts, their 
games, and other public ceremonies : but all these want 
the fourth Mark, of commencing at the time when the 
things, which they commemorate, were said to have been 
done. Hence they cannot secure mankind in subsequent 



( 15 ) 

ages from imposture, as they furnish no internal means 
of detection at the period of the forgery. The Baccha- 
nalia, for example, and other heathen festivals, were es- 
tablished long after the events to which they refer 5 and 
the priests of Juno, Mars, &c. were not ordained by those 
imaginary Deities, but appointed by others in some after- 
age to their honour, and are therefore no evidence of the 
truth of their preternatural achievements. 
To apply what has been said. 

We may challenge all the Deists in the world lo show 
any fabulous action, accompanied by these Four Marks. 
The thing is impossible. The histories of the Old and 
New Testament never could have been received, if they 
had not been true; because the priesthoods of Levi and 
of Christ, the observance of the Sabbath, the Passover, 
and Circumcision, and the Sacraments of Baptism and the 
Lord's Supper, &c. are there represented as descending 
uninterruptedly from the times of their respective insti- 
tution. And it would have been as impossible to per- 
suade men in after-ages, that they had been circumcised 
or baptized, had circumcised or baptized their children, 
and celebrated Passovers, Sabbaths, and Sacraments under 
the ministration of a certain order of priests, if they had 
done none of those things ; as to make them believe at the 
time, without any real foundation, that they had gone 
through seas on dry land, seen the dead raised, &c. But, 
without such a persuasion, it was impossible that either 
the Law or the Gospel could have been received. And 
the truth of the matters of fact of each being no otherwise 
asserted, than as such public ceremonies had been pre- 
viously practised, their certainty is established upon the 

FULL CONVICTION OF THE SENSES OF MANKIND. 

I do not say that every thing, which wants these Four 
Marks, is false ; but that every thing, which has them all, 
must be true. 

I can have no doubt that there was such a man as 
Julius Caesar, that he conquered at Pharsalia, and was 
killed in the Senate-house ; though neither his actions, 
nor his assassination, are commemorated by any public 
observances. But this shows, that the matters of fact of 
Moses, and of Christ, have come down to us better ccrti- 



( 16 ) 

fied than any other whatsoever. And yet our Deists* 
who would consider any one as hopelessly irrational that 
should offer to deny the existence of Caesar, value them- 
selves as the only men of profound sense and judgement, 
for ridiculing the histories of Moses and of Christ, though 
guarded with infallible marks which that of Caesar wants. 

Besides, the nature of the subject would of itself lead to 
a more minute examination of the one, than of the other : 
for of what consequence is it to me, or to the world, whe- 
ther there ever were such a man as Caesar ; whether he 
conquered at Pharsalia, and was killed in the Senate- 
house, or not ? But our eternal welfare is concerned in 
the truth of what is recorded in the Scriptures ; and there- 
fore they would naturally be more narrowly scrutinised, 
when proposed for acceptance. 

How unreasonable, t hen, is it to reject matters of fact so 
important, so sifted, and so attested j and yet to think it 
absurd, even to madness, to deny other matters of fact — 
which have not the thousandth part of their evidence, 
have had comparatively little investigation, and are of no 
consequence at all ! 



THE 



TRUTH OF CHRISTIANITY, 



To the preceding Four Marks, which are common to 
the matters of fact of Moses and of Christ, I now proceed 
to subjoin Four additional Marks ; the three last of which 
no matter of fact, how true soever, either has had or can 
have, except that of Christ. 

This will obviously appear, if it be considered, 

(V.) That the Book, which relates the facts, contains 
likewise the laws of the people to whom it belongs ; 

(VI.) That Christ was previously announced, for that 
very period, by a long train of Prophecies ; and, 

(VII.) Still more peculiarly prefigured by Types, both 
of a circumstantial and a personal nature, from the earliest 
ages ; and, lastly, 

(VIII.) That the facts of Christianity are such, as to 
make it impossible for either their relators or hearers to 
believe them, if false, without supposing an universal de- 
ception of the senses o f mankind. 

5. The fifth Mark, which has already been discussed, 
renders it (as was above observed) impossible for any 
one to have imposed such a book upon any people. 
For example: — Suppose I should forge a code of laws 
for Great Britain, and publish it next term : could I 
hope to persuade the judges, lawyers, and people that 
this was their genuine statute-book, by which all their 

B 



( 18 ) 

causes had been determined in the public courts for so 
many centuries past ? Before they could be brought to 
this, they must totally forget their established laws, which 
they had so laboriously committed to memory and so fa- 
miliarly quoted in every day's practice ; and believe that 
this new book, which they had never seen before, was that 
old book which had been placed so long in Westminster- 
Hall, which has been so often printed, and of which the 
originals are now so carefully preserved in the Tower. 

This applies strongly to the books of Moses, in which 
not only the history of the Jews, but likewise their whole 
law secular and ecclesiastical, was contained. And though, 
from the early extension and destined universality of the 
Christian system, it could not without unnecessary con- 
fusion furnish an uniform civil code to all it's various fol- 
lowers, who were already under the government of laws 
in some degree adapted to their respective climates and 
characters, yet was it intended as the spiritual guide of 
the new Church. And in this respect the fifth Mark is 
still stronger with regard to the Gospel, than even to the 
Books of Moses ; inasmuch as it is easier (however hard) 
to imagine the substitution of an entire statute-book in 
one particular nation, than that all the nations of Chris- 
tendom should have unanimously conspired in the forgery. 
But without such a conspiracy such a forgery could never 
have succeeded, as the Gospel universally formed a regu- 
lar part of their daily public offices. 

But I hasten to the sixth Mark, of Prophecy. 

6. The great fact of Christ's coming was previously an- 
nounced to the Jews, in the Old Testament, H by all the 
holy Prophets, which have been since the world began." 
(Luke i. 70.) 

The first promise upon the subject was made to Adam, 
immediately after the Fall. {Gen.m. 15. Compare Col. 
ii. 15. and Heb. ii. 14.) 

He was again repeatedly promised to Abraham, (Gen. 
xii. 3. xviii. 18. and xxii. 18., applied Gal. iii. 16.) to 
I*aac (Gen. xxvi. 4.), and to Jacob. {Gen. xxviii. 14.) 

Jacob expressly prophesied of him, under the appella- 
tion of " Shiloh,'' or him that was to be sent. {Gen. xlix. 



( 19 ) 

10. ) Balaam also, with the voice of inspiration, pro- 
nounced him u the Star of Jacob, and the Sceptre of 
Israel." (Numb. xxiv. 17.) Moses spake of him, as 
One " greater than himself." (Deut. xviii. 15. 18, 19, 
applied Acts iii. 22.) And Daniel hailed his arrival, 
under the name of Messiah the Prince." (ix. 25.) 

It was foretold, that he should be born of a virgin 
(Isa. vii. 14,) in the city of Bethlehem, (Mic. v. 2.) of 
the seed of Jesse (Isa. xi. 1. 10.) — that he should lead a 
life of poverty and suffering (Psal. xxii.) inflicted upon 
him, not " for himself," (Dan. ix. 26.) but for the sins 
of others (Isa. liii.) and, after a short confinement in the 
grave, should rise again [Psal. xvi. 10, applied Acts ii. 
27. 31. and xiii. 35 — 37.)— that he should " sit upon 
the throne of David for ever, and be called the mighty 
God/' (Isa. ix. 6, 7.) " the Lord our Righteousness,'* 
(Jer. xxxiii. 16,) " Immanuel, that is, God with us," 
(Isa. vii. 14, applied Matt. i. 23.) and by David himself, 
whose son he was according to the flesh, "Lord"(PW. cx» 
1, applied to Christ by himself, Matt. xxii. 44, and 
by Peter, (Acts ii. 34.) 

The time of his incarnation was to be, before u the 
Sceptre should depart from Judatv" (Gen. xlix. 10.) 
during the continuance of the second Temple [Hagg. ii. 
7. 9.) and within Seventy Weeks, or 490 days, i. e. ac- 
cording to the constant interpretation of prophecy, 490 
years from it's erection. (Dan. ix. 24.) 

From these and many other predictions, the coming 
of Christ, was at all times the general expectation of the 
Jews ; and that it had ripened into full maturity, at the 
time of his actual advent, may be inferred from the num- 
ber of false Messiahs, who about that period made their 
appearance. 

That he was, likewise, the expectation of the Gentiles (in 
conformity to the prophecies of Gen. xxix. 10. and Hagi*. 

11. 7, where the terms " People,'' and " Nations/' denote 
the Heathen world) is evinced by the coming of the wise 
men from the East, &c; a story, which would, of course, 
have been contradicted by some of the individuals so 
disgracefully concerned in it, if the fact of their arrival, 

b 2 



( 20 ) 

and the consequent massacre of the infants* in and about 
Bethlehem, had not been fresh in every one's memory : 
by them, for instance, who afterward suborned false- 
witnesses against Christ, and gave large money to the 
soldiers to conceal (if possible) the event of his resur- 
rection ; or them, who in still later days every where 
zealously spoke against the tenets and practices of his 
rising Church. 

All over the east, indeed, there was a general tradi- 
tion, that about that time a king of the Jews would be 
born, who should govern the whole earth. This prevailed 
so strongly at Rome, a few months before the birth of 
Augustus, that the Senate made a decree to expose all 
the children produced that year ; but the execution of it 
was eluded by a trick of some of the senators, who from 
the pregnancy of their wives were led to hope that they 
might be the fathers of the promised Prince t. It's cur- 
rency is also recorded, with a remarkable identity of 
phrase, by the pens of Suetonius J and Tacitus §• 
Now that in this there was no collusion between the 
Chaldeans, Romans, and Jews, is sufficiently proved by 
the desperate methods suggested, or carried into effect, 
for it's discomfiture. Nor, in fact, is it practicable for 
whole nations of contemporary (and still less, if possible, 
for those of successive) generations, to concei t a story 
perfectly harmonious in all it's minute accompaniments of 
time, place, manner, and other circumstances. 

* This is alluded to by Macrobius, who relates Augustus' Greek 
pun upon the occasion in a language, in which it entirely loses it's 
point; Cum auduset inter pueros, quos in Syria Herodes rex Judceorum 
intra bimatum jussit interfici,jilium quoque ejus occisum ; ait, *•* Melius 
est Herodis poreum esse, quam filium," (Saturn. II. 4.) i. e. iv n utov, 
" It is better to be Herod's swine than his son;" on account of the 
abstinence of the Jews from that animal. 

T — re g em populo Romano Naturam parturire : senatum exterritum 
censtiisse, Ne quis illo anno genitus educaretur ; eos qui gravidas uxores 
baberent, quo ad se quisque spem traheret, curhsse ne senatus consultum 
ad (Erarium deferretur. (Suet. Aug. 94.) 

:£ Percrebuerat Oriente toto vetus et constant opinio, esse in fatis ut 
eo tempore Judasa profecti rerum potirentur. (Suet. Vesp. 4.) 

§ Pluribus persuasio inerat antiquis sacerdotum libris contineri, eo 
ipso tempore fore ut valesceret Oriens, profectique Judaea rerum po- 
tirentur. (Tac. Hist. v. 13.) 



( 21 ) 

In addition to the above general predictions of the 
coming, life, death, and resurrection of Christ, there 
are others which foretell still more strikingly several par- 
ticular incidents of the Gospel-narrative 5 incidents un- 
parallelled in the whole range of history, and which could 
have been foreseen by God alone. They were, certainly, 
not foreseen by the human agents concerned in their 
execution ; or they would never have contributed to the 
fulfilment of prophecies referred even by themselves to 
the Messiah, and therefore verifying, the divine mission 
of him, whom they crucified as an impostor. 

Observe, then, how literally many of these predictions 
were fulfilled. For example, read Psal. lxix. 21. " They 
gave me gall to eat, and vinegar to drink and compare 
Matt, xxvii. 34. They gave him vinegar to drink, mingled 

with gall. Again, it is said, Psal. xxii. 16 — 18. 

" They pierced my hands and my feet— they stand staring 
and looking upon me. They part my garments among 
them, and cast lots upon my vesture * as if it had been 

* The soldiers did not tear his coat, because it was without seamy 
woven from the top throughout ; and, therefore, they cast lots for it. 
But this was entirely accidental. With the passage in the Psalms, as 
Romans, they were not very likely to be acquainted. The same re- 
mark applies to the next instance, from Zechariah. 

And here it may be suggested (in reply to those, who insidiously 
magnify " the power of chance, the ingenuity of accommodation, and 
the industry of research," as chiefly supporting the credit of obscure 
prophecy) that greater plainness would enable wicked men, as free 
agents, to prevent it's accomplishment, when obviously directed 
against themselves. The Jews, not understanding what Christ meant 
by his ** lifting up" (John viii. 28. xii. 32,33.) and not knowing that 
he had foretold his crucifixion to his Apostles (Matt. xx. 19.) instead 
of finally stoning him — the death appointed by their law (Levit. xxiv. 
16.) for blasphemy (Matt. xxvi. 65.), more than once menaced 
against the Saviour (John viii. 59. x. 33.), and actually inflicted upon 
Stephen, (Ads vii. 58.) for that offence — unconsciously delivered him 
to the predicted Roman cross. Again, the piercing of his side was 
no part of the Roman sentence, but merely to ascertain his being 
dead, previously to taking him down from the cross ; " that the body 
might not remain there on the Sabbath-day," which commenced that 
evening a few hours after the crucifixion. From his early giving up 
the ghost, however, it was not necessary that " a bone of him should 
be broken," (Exod. xii. 46. Numb. ix. 12. Psal. xxxiv. 20.) like those 
of the two thieves, his fellow-sufferers. (John xix. 32, 36.) 



( 22 ) 

written after John xix. 23, 24. It is said likewise, Zech. 
xi. 10. " They shall look upon me, whom they have 
pierced 3" and we are told, John xix. 34, that one of the 

soldiers mtk a spear pierced kis side, &c. 

Compare also Psal. xxii. 7, 8. " All they, that see 
me, laugh me to scorn : they shoot out their lips and 
shake their heads, saying, He trusted in God, that he 
would deliver him ; let him deliver him, if he will have 
him — with Matt, xxvii. 39. 41 . 43. And they that passed 
by reviled him, wagging their heads, and saying, Come 
down from the cross. Likewise also the Chief-priests mock- 
ing him, with the Scribes and Elders, said, He trusted in 
God : let him deliver him now, if he will have him ; for 
he said, I am the Son of God. His very price and the 
mode of laying out the money, previously specified, Zech, 
xi. 13. are historically stated, in perfect correspondence 
with the prophet, Matt, xxvii. 6, 7. And his riding 
into Jerusalem upon an ass, predicted Zech. ix. 9. (and 
referred, by one of the most learned of the Jewish Rabbies, 
to Messiah) is recorded by the same inspired historian, 
xxi. 9. Lastly, it was foretold that " he should make 
his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his 
death," (Isa. liii. 9;) and this, rightly translated*, was 
precisely verified by the very improbable incidents of his 
being crucified between two thieves (Matt, xxvii. 38.) and 
afterward laid in the new tomb of the rich man of Ari- 
mathea. (ib. 57. 60.) 

Thus do the prophecies of the Old Testament, which 
had been constantly in the keeping of those bitter ene- 
mies of Christianity, the Jews, distinctly and harmo- 
niously refer to the person and character of Christ. His 
own predictions, in the New, demand a few brief obser- 
vations. 

Those relating to the destruction of Jerusalem, which 
specified that it should be " laid even with the ground," 
and " not one stone left upon another'' (Luke xix. 44.) 

* This passage, which in the common translation inverts the cir- 
cumstances of Christ's passion, is by Dr. Lowth rendered perfectly 
agreeable to them ; " And his grave was appointed with the wicked, 
but with the rich man was his tomb." 



( 23 ) 



before et that generation passed" (Matt. xxiv. 34.), were 
fulfilled in a most surprisingly-literal manner, the very 
foundations of the temple being ploughed up by Turnus 
Rufus. In another remarkable prophecy he announced 
the many false Messiahs, that should come after him, 
and the ruin in which their followers should be involved 
(Matt. xxiv. 25, 26.) : and that great numbers actually 
assumed that holy character before the final fall of the 
city, and led the people into the wilderness to their de- 
struction, we learn from Josephus. (Antiq. Jud. xviii. 
12. xx. 6, and B. J. viii. 31.) Nay, such was their 
wretched infatuation, that under this delusion they re- 
jected the offers of Titus, who courted them to peace. 
(B. J. vii. 12.) 

It will be sufficient barely to mention his foretelling 
the dispersion of that unhappy nation, and the triumph 
of his Gospel over the gates of hell, under every possible 
disadvantage ; himself low and despised, his associates only 
twelve (and those illiterate and unpolished), and his ad- 
versaries the allied powers, prejudices, habits, interests, 
and appetites of mankind. 

7. But the seventh Mark is still more peculiar (if possible) 
to Christ, than even that of Prophecy. For whatever may 
be weakly pretended with regard to the oracular predic- 
tions of Delphi or Dodona, the Heathens never affected to 
prefigure any future event by Types or resemblances of 
the fact, consisting of analogies either in individuals, or 
insensible institutions directed to continue till the anti- 
type itself should make it's appearance. 

These types, in the instance of Christ, were of a two- 
fold nature, circumstantial and personal. Of the former 
kind (not to notice the general rite of sacrifice *) may be 
produced, as examples ; 1. The Passover appointed in 
memory of that great night when the Destroying Angel, 
who " slew all the first-born of Egypt," passed over those 
houses, upon whose door the blood of the Paschal Lamb 

* Among the heathen posterity of Noah likewise the principle, 
that ' evil was to be averted by vicarious atonement,' was tradition- 
ally preserved : witness the self-devotion of Curtius and the Decii, 
and the sacrifice of Iphigenia and the son of the king of Moah. 
(2 Kings iii. 27.) 



( 24 ) 

was sprinkled ; and directed to be eaten with (what the 
Apostle, 1 Cor. v. 7> 8, calls) " the unleavened bread of 
sincerity and truth." 2. The annual Expiation, in two 
respects : first, as the High Priest entered into the Holy 
of Holies (representing Heaven, Exod. xxv. 40. Wisd. ix. 
8. Heb. ix. 24.) with the blood of the sacrifice, whose body 
was burnt without the camp — " wherefore Jesus also, 
that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suf- 
fered without the gate/' (Heb. xiii. 12.) j and, " after he 
had offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever sat down oh the 
right-hand of God" (x. 12.) : and, secondly, as " all the 
iniquities of the children of Israel were put upon the head'* 
of the Scape-goat. (Lev. xvi. 21.) 3. The brazen Ser- 
pent, by looking up to which the people were cured of the 
stings of the fiery serpents ; and whose ' ' lifting-up" was, 
by Christ himself, interpreted as emblematical of his be- 
ing lifted up on the cross. (John iii. 14.) 4. The Manna, 
which represented ff the bread of life, that came down from 
heaven." (Johnvi. 31 — 35.) 5. The Rock, whence the 
waters flowed to supply drink in the wilderness ; " and 
that rock was Christ." (1 Cor. x. 4.) 6. The Sabbath, 
" a shadow of Christ" (Col. ii. 16, 17.) j and, as a figure, 
of his eternal rest, denominated " a sign of the perpetual 
covenant." (Exod. xxxi. 16, 17- Ezek. xx. 12. 20.) And 
lastly, to omit others, 7. The Temple, where alone these 
shadowy sacrifices were to be offered, because Christ 
(" the body") was to be offered there himself*. 

Of personal types likewise, I shall confine myself to 
such, as are so considered in the New Testament : 

r. Adam, between whom and Christ a striking series 

* Hence the sin of the Jews (so often mentioned in the Old Testa- 
ment) in that the high-places, where they used to sacrifice illegally 
were not taken away. (1 Kings xv. 14. xxii. 43. 2 Kings xn. 3. xv. 4. 
35, &c.) But they were removed by Hezekiah (2 Kings xviii. 4.) and 
the people directed to worship and burn incense at Jerusalem only. 
(2 Chron. xxxii. 12. Jsai. xxxvi. 7.) 

Hence too by the expatriation of the Jews, and the destruction of 
" their city and sanctuary" (predicted to take place soon after the 
death of the Messiah {Dan. ix. 26, 27.), they have now " no more 
sacrifice for sins." (fJeb. x. 26.): for, when that which was perfect war 
come f that which was in part was done away. The types ceased, when 
the anti-type appeared. 



( 25 ) 

of relations is marked, Rom. v. 12. to the end, and 1 Cor. xv. 
45 — 4,0,, 2. Noah, who " saved by water: the like figure 
whereunto, even baptism, doth now save us, by the resur- 
rection of Jesus Christ." (1 Pet. iii. 20, 21.) 3. Mel- 
chisedec, king of Salem, who was made <{ like unto the 
Son of God, a priest continually." (Heb. vii. 3.) 4. Abra- 
ham, " the heir of the world" (Rom. iv. 13.), " in whom 
all the nations of the earth are blessed." (Gen. xviii. 18.) 
5. Isaac, in his birth and intended sacrifice, l< whence * 
also his father received him in a figure 0 (Heb. xi. 19.), 
i. e. of the resurrection of Christ. He, too, was the pro- 
mised seed (Gen. xxi. 12- and Gal. iii. 16.) " in whom all 
the nations of the earth were to be blessed." (Gen. xxii. 
18.) 6. Jacob, in his vision of the ladder (Gen. xxviii. 12, 
and John i. 51.), and his wrestling with the angel; 
whence he, and after him the Church, obtained the name 
of f Israel.' ( Gen. xxvii. 24., and Matt. xi. 12.) The Gen- 
tile world, also, like Jacob (i. e. a supplanter, Gen. xxvii. 
36.) gained the blessing and heirship from their elder 
brethren the Jews. 7. Moses (Deut. xviii. 18, and John 
i. 45.), in redeeming the children of Israel out of Egypt. 

8. Joshua (called also Jesus, Heb.iv. 8.), in acquiring for 
them the possession of the Holy Land, and as Lieutenant 
to " the Captain of the host of the Lord." (Josh. v. 14.) 

9. David (Psal. xvi. 10. and Acts ii. 25 — 35.), upon whose 
throne Christ is said to sit (Isaiah ix. J.), and by whose 
name he is frequently designated (Hos. iii. 5, &c.) in his 
pastoral, regal, and prophetical capacity. And, 10. Jonah, 
in his dark imprisonment of three days, applied by Christ 
to himself. (Matt. xii. 40.) 

8. The Eighth and last Mark is, That the facts of Chris- 
tianity are such, as to make it impossible for either the 
relators or the hearers to believe them, if false, without 
supposing an universal deception of the senses of man- 
kind. 

For they were related by the doers, or by eye-witnesses, 
to those who themselves likewise either were or might 
have been present (and, undoubtedly, knew many that 

* Moriah likewise, the scene of the injoined oblation, is supposed 
to have been Mount Calvary. 

C 



( 26 ) 

were present) at their performance $ to this circumstance, 
indeed, both Christ and his Apostles often appeal. And 
they were of such a nature, as wholly to exclude every 
chance of imposition. What juggler could have given 
sight to him, '* that was born blind ;** have fed five thou- 
sand hungry guests with '* five loaves and two fishes or 
have raised one, who had been i( four days buried," from 
his grave ? 

When then we add to this, that none of the Jewish or 
Roman persecutors of Christianity, to whom it's first 
teachers frequently referred as witnesses of those facts, 
ever ventured to deny them 5 that no apostate disciple, 
under the fear of punishment or the hope of reward (not 
even the artful and accomplished Julian himself), ever 
pretended to detect them : that neither learning nor in- 
genuity, in the long lapse of eighteen hundred years, have 
been able to show their falsehood 5 though, for the first 
three centuries after their promulgation, the civil govern- 
ment strongly stimulated hostile inquiry : and that their 
original relators, after lives of unintermitted hardship, 
joyfully incurred death in defence of their truth — we can 
scarcely imagine the possibility of a more perfect, or more 
abundant, demonstration. 

It now rests with the Deists, if they would vindicate 
their claim to the self-bestowed title of Men of Reason, 
to adduce some matters of fact of former ages, which they 
allow to be true, possessing evidence superior or even 
similar to those of Christ. This however, it must at the 
same time be observed, would be far from proving the 
matters of fact of Christ to be false ; but certainly, with- 
out this, they cannot reasonably assert that their own 
facts alone, so much more unfavourably circumstanced 
with regard to testimony, are true. 

Let them, therefore, produce their Caesar, or their Ma- 
homet, 

(I.) Performing a fact, of which men's wtward senses 
can judge. 

(II.) Publicly, in the presence of witnesses ; 
(III.) In memory of which pubHc monuments and ac- 
tions are kept up, 



( 27 ) 



(IV.) Instituted and commencing at the time of the 
fact'; 

(V.) Recorded likewise in a set of books, addressed to 
the identical people before whom it was performed, and 
containing their whole code of Civil and Ecclesiastical law ; 

(VI.) As the work of one, previously announced for 
that very period by a long train of Prophecies, 

(VII.) And still more peculiarly prefigured by Types, 
both of a circumstantial and a personal nature, from the 
earliest ages ; and, lastly, 

(VIII.) Of such a character, as made it impossible for 
either the relators or hearers to believe it, if false, with- 
out supposing an universal deception of the senses of man- 
kind .— 

Again — Let them display in it's relators, themselves too 
eye-witnesses of the fact, the same proofs of veracity, 
evinced by an equally-patient endurance of distress 
and death in it's support : and in some doctrine founded 
upon it (as unpopular in it's outset, and in it's progress 
as little aided by arms, or learning, or oratory, or in- 
trigue) the same triumph over the united prejudices 
and passions of mankind : — 

Finally — Let them exhibit among it's believers (un- 
biassed by any supposed professional partiality) the mi- 
nutely-investigating spirit of a Boyle, the profound un- 
derstanding of a Locke, the dispassionate reason of an 
Addison, the discriminating judgement of a Hale, the 
sublime intellect of a Milton, and the only-not-divine 
sagacity of a Newton : — 

Or LET THEM SUBMIT TO THE IRRESISTIBLE CER- 
TAINTY of the Christian Religion. 



THE END. 



THE 



EVIDENCES 



CHRISTIANITY; 



ABRIDGED FROM 



DR. DODDRIDGE'S 



UPON THAT SUBJECT, 



By the Rev. FRANCIS WRANGHAM* 



We have not followed cunningly-devised fables.'* 

(2 Pet. 1. 16.) 



[Only Fifty Copies on Demy 8vo.] 

1820. 



205449 
t?13 



AD VERTISEMENT. 



t9>&<$t< 

To prefix any notice to a Work, which issued originally 
from the pen of one so justly reverenced by all classes 
of Christian society as Dr. Doddridge, woidd appear 
( and, if it were merely in the way of panegyric, ivoidd 
justly appear ) as superfluous, as it would be 

" to gild refined gold." 

To all Readers, however, it may not be historically known 
that the Three admirable Discourses, which have fur- 
nished the materials of the following pages, were on 
their first publication in 1756 combined with seven 
others; and that at the particular request of one of 
the highest Dignitaries of the Established Church, who 
thought it most desirable that they shoidd be thrown 
into the widest possible circulation, they zvere subse- 
quently printed in a separate form. 

Oar adversaries, it has been truly observed, never trouble 
themselves to examine the Evidences of Religion, but 
take all their knowledge of it from a few objections 
casually stated in light conversation. The true reasoner 
seeks for evidence, before he listens to objections. Secure 
of the first, he is not easily shaken by the latter. 

u It gave the Author ( says his respectable Biographer, Mr. 
Orton J singidar pleasure to know, that those Sermons 
were the means of convincing two gentlemen of a liberal 
education and distinguished abilities, who had been Deists, 
that Christianity was true and divine : and one of them, 
ivho had set himself strenuously to prejudice others 
against the evidence and contents of the Gospel, became 
a zealous preacher and an ornament of the religion he 
had once denied and despised." 

It cannot be otherwise than satisfactory to add, that they are 
made the subject of study and examination in one of 
the two principal Colleges in the University of Cam- 
bridge. 

Their excellent and lamented Writer died at Lisbon, whither 
he had gone for the recovery of his health, in 1751, in 
the fiftieth year of his age : but by his Works, " though 
dead, he yet speaketh." 

F, W. 

February 28, 1820. 



THE 

EVIDENCES 



OF 

CHRISTIANITY, &c 



JPhE object of this short Tract is, to give a summary view 
of the most considerable arguments in favour of Christianity 
in their proper and natural connexion, which must furnish 
better grounds of judgement than could possibly be supplied 
by any number of detached remarks, or by a more copious 
enlargement upon any single branch of the subject. And 
may God prepare the understanding of the reader to receive 
these things, and strengthen his memory to retain them ; that 
he may not be like a child tossed to and fro, and carried about 
with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men and the cun- 
ning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive! 

I. First, then, it must appear highly probable, if we 
take the matter merely in theory, that a system resembling 
that of the Gospel in doctrine and in precepts, should be a 
divine revelation : because, 

1. The state of mankind, at the period of it's introduc- 
tion, was such as greatly to need a revelation ; 

2. There seems to be encouragement, from the light of 
nature, to hope that God would grant one ; 

3. And that so introduced and transmitted, as we are 
told Christianity was ; 

4. And in substance, generally, what we find Christianity 
to be. 

These four particulars, if established, not only afford 
strong presumptive evidence, that 'the Gospel is from God;' 
but also open a fair way for the more direct proof, arising 
from external evidence, of the same proposition. 

1. It is an easy thing, to pronounce florid encomiums on 
the perfection of natural light ; but if we appeal to the sure 

A 



6 



authority of facts, it cannot be denied that the whole heathen 
world has lain, and still lieth, in wickedness : that nothing is 
so wild as not to have been believed, nothing so infamous as 
not to have been practised by them ; and that even in Chris- 
tian, nay, in Protestant countries, we find a too general igno- 
rance or forgetfulness of God, coupled with debauchery, 
fraud, oppression, pride, ambition, and avarice ; whence we 
may judge, whether or not a Revelation be an unnecessary 
thing. And, 

2. That it is in itself a possible thing with Him, with 
whom all things are possible, it is as idle to assert, as it would 
be impious to deny. But would such a Being, it may be asked, 
deem it proper to confer upon his creatures such a favour; 
gifted as they already are with faculties and opportunities 
to trace, and with motives to glorify, him as God ? 

If we consider him as an indulgent Father, watching 
tenderly over us and liberally providing us with every thing 
needful for the support of animal life, especially in the medi- 
cinal virtues imparted to many of the productions of nature 
(which, in a state of perfect rectitude and happiness, we 
should never have required) we cannot but think it highly 
probable, that he would at one time or other graciously sup- 
ply some remedy to heal the diseased mincL This anticipa- 
tion, indeed, seems perfectly agreeable to the general senti- 
ments of mankind; as maybe inferred from the pretences to 
divine revelation, which have been so frequently fabricated, 
and so credulously received. 

5. That a revelation, if actually made, would be so 
made as we are told Christianity was, may likewise safely be 
concluded : namely, that it would be taught by some person 
sent down from a superior world, or distinguished by his 
eminent wisdom in this ; and who would not only teach, but 
also practise, universal goodness. With this view he would, 
robably, be involved in a series of distresses, in order to ex- 
ibit him as a pattern of the virtues peculiar to adversity ; 
and, finally, by the intervention of the Deity be either rescued 
from those distresses, or restored from death, if he sunk un- 
der them. 

NoRis it less likely, that the fellow-labourers of such a per- 
son, for the purpose of attracting attention and proving the 
divinity of their mission, would be endowed with a power of 
working Miracles — as at once the shortest, the plainest, and 
the most forcible mode of conviction ; especially where an 
effect is to be produced upon the populace, who form incom- 
parably the greater part of mankind. It is, also, not im- 
probable, that the disclosure of such a Dispensation would be 



7 



gradual; and that it's most illustrious Promulgator would be 
ushered in by some Prophecies, exciting a general expectation 
of his coming, and manifestly accomplished by it. 

With respect to it's propagation, after having been thus 
established at it's outset it would naturally be transmitted, 
like other important facts, by credible testimony; which, 
though less convincing than miracles actually wrought before 
our eyes, may yet rise to such a degree as to exclude all rea- 
sonable doubt. And why should we expect the evidence of a 
Revelation to be so forcible, as universally and irresistibly to 
compel assent ? Is it not, on the other hand, more likely, that 
it would be such as might indeed give ample satisfaction to 
the diligent and candid, yet leave room for cavil and objec- 
tion to the captious inquirer? Such, it is contended, that of 
Christianity is : and 

4. It's main doctrines are (what we might, by anticipa- 
tion, conclude those of divine revelation would be) rational, 
practical, and sublime; clearly asserting the chief principles 
of Natural Religion — the existence, unity, providence, and 
perfection of God, the essential difference between moral 
good and evil, our obligations to the various ; branches of 
virtue, the immortality of the soul, and the rewards and 
punishments of a future state. 

That such a Revelation would however contain some 
things, which could not have been learned from the highest 
improvements of natural light, and hint at others which our 
feeble faculties would not be able fully to comprehend, might 
reasonably be supposed. Yet even with regard to those, we 
should anticipate, that they would either lead to new duties, or 
suggest more powerful motives to the discharge of old ones. 
And of ceremonial institutions, at least in the more advanced 
state of the revelation, we should be prepared to find the 
number few, and the tendency plainly subservient to the 
great purposes of practical religion. 

Now from whom, but from God, could such a Dispensa- 
tion have proceeded? That so admirable a system of truth 
and duty should be contrived, or propagated, by the children 
of wickedness — would be strangely unaccountable : nor can 
we imagine, that righteous men would have attempted to 
support the cause of religion by such impious falsehoods, as 
their pretensions must have been — if they had been false- 
hoods at all. 

Were the Gospel then only in theory thus probable, 
there is so much of safety and of comfort in it, that a wise 
man would deliberately venture all his hopes upon it, though 
nothing more could be offered for it's confirmation. But, 



8 



blessed be God, we can affirm with still greater confidence,, 
upon positive grounds, that 

II. Christianity is assuredly, and in fact, a divine 
revelation. 

In order to prove this, we assert, 

1 . That the Books of the New Testament were written 
by the original preachers and publishers of Christianity : and 

2. That what they teach carries along with it such 
evidences of a divine authority, as may justly demand our 
acceptance. 

With a view to establish the first of these propositions, 
we proceed to demonstrate, 

1. That Christianity is an ancient religion ; 

2. That there was such a person as Jesus of Nazareth 
crucified at Jerusalem about eighteen hundred years ago ; 

0. That the first preachers of his religion wrote books 
named like those, which now make up the New Testament j 

4. That those books are preserved in the original to the 
present times ; and, 

5. That our authorised translation of them may be 
depended upon, as substantially faithful. 

1. That above seventeen hundred years ago, there 
existed a body of men called Christians, may be evinced by 
referring to the works (still extant) of the Christian writers, 
who lived in the same or the next age. These by their 
Exhortations and Apologies render it notoriously certain, 
that Christianity was then of some standing in the world : and 
their testimony is confirmed by the invectives of contem- 
porary Jews and Heathens. From Tacitus, the historian, 
we learn that, ' in the days of the Roman Emperor Nero 
(who began his reign about twenty years after the death of 
Christ) there was a vast multitude of Christians, not only 
in Judaea but at Rome also,' against whom a persecution was 
raised*; and he plainly intimates, that this was not the first at- 
tempt of the kind. Suetonius, in his Memoir of Nero,f 
asserts the same fact. Pliny, who was employed by Trajan 
to prosecute the Christians, in his celebrated Letter to that 
Emperor % states, that 'many of both sexes, and of every age 
and rank, were infected with this superstition (as he thinks fit 
to term it) ; and that it had penetrated the villages, as well as 
the cities.* Marcus Antoninus, who wrote a few years after 
Pliny, mentions the Christians as 'examples of a resolute and 
obstinate contempt of death and it is generally supposed. 



Ann. xv» 44. f Ner. xvi. 



f Epist. x. 97. 



9 



that they were the Galileans recorded by Epictetus, as 'taught 
by practice to despise the rage of their armed enemies.'* 

It is incontrovertible, therefore, that there were vast 
numbers of Christians, soon after Jesus of Nazareth is said 
to have appeared upon earth, who chose to endure the greatest 
extremities rather than abandon the religion which he had 
inculcated. 

2. Now this could not have been the case, unless they 
had been well assured, that there was actually such a person 
as Jesus of Nazareth. Several, indeed, of the authors above- 
quoted, distinctly assert, that the Christians derived their 
name from Christ; who, as Tacitus expressly adds,f was 
* put to death under Pontius Pilate, Procurator of Judaea, in 
the reign of Tiberius.' The Crucifixion, in truth, is a fact, 
which our enemies were so far from disowning, that they 
even gloried in it. The Jews, in some of their earliest 
subsequent writings, call Jesus * the man who was hanged 
and the heathen, Lucian, rallies the Christians for having 
deserted the pompous train of the Pagan deities to worship 
One, whom he impiously derides as ' a crucified impostor,' 
A great deal more might be added on this head; but more 
cannot be necessary, to prove that there was at the period 
in question such a person as Christ, who professed himself 
to be a divine teacher, and was followed by numerous 
disciples. 

5. What these disciples saw and heard, it was ex- 
tremely natural that they should not only declare orally, 
but also publish in writing : as books, in the age and coun- 
tries in which they taught, were not uncommon ; and a 
minute acquaintance with the history and doctrines of 
Christ, was of the utmost consequence to the accomplish- 
ment of their mighty object. But we have, fortunately,, 
still more than this strong presumption on the subject. 

The bitterest adversaries of Christianity must grant, 
that we possess books written from fifteen to seventeen 
hundred years ago, in which mention is made of the Life 
of Christ, as drawn up more especially by four of his disci- 
ples, called the Evangelists. Great pains, it is true, have 
been taken to prove that soiwe spurious narratives, also, 
were anciently current under the names of the Aposties : 
but surely this proves, at the same time, that some genuine 
narratives were in circulation ; as counterfeit coin implies 
the previous existence of true money, which it is designed 



* Ner. iv. 7. f lb. 

B 



10 



to represent. The primitive Christians, we know from the 
ancient Ecclesiastical Writers, sifted these works with' scru- 
pulous jealousy : and their justness of discrimination was such, 
that (as Eusebius, an accurate critic in those early ages, in- 
forms us) no doubt was ever entertained of the genuineness of 
the Four Gospels, the Acts, Thirteen Epistles of Paul, one of 
Peter, and one of John ; * to which the other books of the 
New Testament were, upon competent authority, subse- 
quently added. These sacred books they universally repre- 
sen t as 6 the words of the Spirit,' and as ' the law and the 
organ of God.' Now surely they were as capable of judg- 
ing, whether or not a book was written by Matthew, or 
John, or Paul ; as an old Roman could be of detenninlng, 
whether or not Horace, or Cicero, or Livy, wrote the works 
which bear their names : especially as, from the infinitely 
deeper interest of the subject, the former would necessarily 
take proportionally greater care to avoid being imposed 
upon by any fictitious story. 

4. There is not, indeed, any other ancient volume 
extant, which may so certainly and so easily as the New 
Testament be proved to be, in substance, what it was on 
issuing from the hands of it's composers. How, in fact, 
could the New Testament have been corrupted ? Received 
and read from the first in the Christian Temples, as a part 
of public worship (just as Moses and the Prophets were, 
in the Jewish Synagogues) it spread with the widening 
boundaries of the Church, and was quickly made the sub- 
ject of translations, of which some remain to this day. To 
suppose it corrupted, therefore, is to suppose that thousands 
and millions of people came together from distant countries, 
with their all-but-infinite diversities of language, customs, 
and sentiments — professedly to corrupt a book acknow- 
ledged by them all to be the great charter, by which they 
held their eternal hopes ! The madness of such an hypo- 
thesis will appear to be tenfold more extravagant, if we 
consider the numbers of Heretics who sprung up in the very 
infancy of the Church, all appealing to this book as the 
final judge of controversies, and all acting as a perpetual 
guard upon each other ; so that by no one party could it 
have been adulterated, without incurring instant detection 
and reprehension from the rest. 

We might also add that, from the very time of the 
Apostles down to our own, numberless quotations have 



* Hist. Eccles. vi. 25. 



II 



been made from the New Testament ; and & multitude ol 
commentaries in various languages, some of them of ancient 
date, written upon it : so that, were every copy of the 
Volume itself lost, it might in a great measure (if not 
wholly) be recovered from the writings of others. If the 
quotations, indeed, made from it were to be collected, they 
would far surpass in bulk all that have ever been made from 
the whole of the ancient writings now remaining in Europe I 
Hence any one might more reasonably dispute, whether or 
not the writings commonly ascribed to Homer, Demost- 
henes, Virgil, or Caesar, be in the main what those writers 
left them ; than affect the same doubt with respect to the 
compositions of the Four Evangelists., or those of Paul, 
Peter, James, and Jude. I say, 6 in the main jj* because in 
the act of transcribing a book, one letter or word may 
casually be substituted for another. But those Various 
Readings, as they are called, are generally (it is well known) 
of very inconsiderable importance. 

To complete this part of the argument, it remains for 
us to show, 

5. That our authorised version of the New Testament 
may be depended upon, as substantially faithful. And that 
we shall do, upon the concurrent testimony of persons 
placed in circumstances, in which it cannot be supposed 
possible that they should unite to deceive. 

On a diligent examination, then, of the Greek text it 
may be averred, that the severest criticisms which our 
translation has at any time encountered, if not totally 
divested both of integrity and of modesty, have never 
affected the fundamentals of religion ; seldom reaching far- 
ther than the beauty of a figure, or the connexion of an 
argument. It may, indeed, confidently be asserted that, as 
there is no copy of the original, so neither is there any 
version of it — ancient, or modern — from which all the prin- 
cipal facts and doctrines of Christianity might not be 
learned, as far as the knowledge of them is necessary to 
salvation. 

But that the reader may n<ot be constrained to rely 
upon our single assertion, we have an advantage in this 
respect, arising out of what (differently viewed) is our great 
calamity — I mean, the diversity of our religious opinions. 
Wherever there is a body of persons dissenting from the Na- 
tional Establishment, who yet agree with the members of that 
Establishment in the use of the same translation, there is 
satisfactory evidence that such a translation is in the main 
correct: because, if it were to any considerable extent 
b 2 



12 



corrupted, such dissenters would undoubtedly think them- 
selves bound in conscience to bear a loud testimony against 
it. Oh! were we equally united in regulating by those 
same Scriptures our doctrine, our discipline, and our 
practice ! 



The New Testament being thus proved to be genuine, 
it incontrovertibly follows that, 

II. Christianity is a Divine Revelation. 

Upon this subject the difficulty indeed is, not to discover 
proofs, but to dispose them so as best to illustrate and 
strengthen each other. The subjoined may, perhaps, appear 
to be the most natural series : 

1 . The Authors of the books of the New Testament were, 

certainty, capable of judging concerning the truth of 
the facts which they relate ; 

2. Their character, as deducible from their writings, renders 

them worthy of the highest regard; 
5. They were under no temptation to propagate their story, 
if it had been false ; 

4. And, if they had tried to do so, they would almost in- 

fallibly have been detected ; 

5. Yet we find that they gained credit, and succeeded won- 

derfully against all opposition ; 

6. Their story, therefore, must be admitted to be true, and 

the Gospel of course to be a Divine Revelation ; 

7. More especially, if we consider what has occurred in 

various ways to confirm it, subsequently to it's first 
propagation. 

1. The Writers of the New Testament must have known 
whether or not the facts, which they asserted, were true, 
because they were themselves present when several of the 
most important of them took place. The language of one 
of those Writers \s — That winch we have seen with our 
eyes, zvhich we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, 
of the Word of Life, i. e. of Christ and his Gospel — that 
declare we unto you.* Surely Matthew and John could not 
but have known, whether or not they had familiarly con- 
versed with Jesus of Nazareth, witnessed his healing the 
sick and raising the dead, and themselves received from him 
miraculous endowments. John in particular informs us, 
that he actually viewed him expiring on the cross, was en* 



* -1 John, i. 1—3. 



13 



trusted by him with the care of his afflicted mother, and 
saw ^he soldier's spear pierce his side, and an effusion of 
blood and water follow the wound.* The same may be 
observed with respect to the modes, by which he ascer- 
tained the reality of the Resurrection. Luke likewise 
must have known, whether or not he was thrown ashore by 
a shipwreck with Paul, and lodged with him in the house 
©f the governor of the island. Paul must have known, 
whether or not he saw Christ on the way to Damascus, was 
struck with blindness, and subsequently on the prayer of a 
fellow-disciple restored to sight ; and received moreover the 
power, not only of working miracles, but also of conveying 
the same faculty to others. Lastly, Peter must have known, 
whether or not he witnessed the Transfiguration, and heard 
the voice which led him to say, We have not followed cun- 
ningly-devised fables. 

Now Matthew, John, Luke, Paul, and Peter, are by far 
the most considerable writers in the New Testament .and 
surely few historians, ancient or modern, have had such 
excellent opportunities of fathoming the truth of what they 
have recorded. The Infidel, therefore, can only allege that 
* they were impostors;' for, if we for a moment suppose 
their narrative to be untrue, they could by no means pre- 
tend that their mistake was involuntary. They must, in the 
•most criminal sense, be found false witnesses of God.j- But, 

2. Such a charge would be quite at variance with their 
characters, as deducible from their writings. In them, they 
appear to have been persons of strong natural sense, and of 
a composed mind. Let any one peruse the discourses of 
Christ as reported by the Evangelists, or those of Peter and 
Paul as preserved in the Acts of the Apostles ; and maintain 
the contrary — if he dare. More especially, let the reader of 
the New Testament mark what evident proofs it contains of 
simplicity, integrity, piety, and beneficence ; and he will 
hardly suspect that those, who could write so admirably 
well, could act so detestably ill as to employ that writing in 
support of an imposture. For, 

(l.) Their stile of narration is most happily adapted to 
gain our belief. Details are often fatai to the dealer in 
fiction, because they so hazardously widen the ground for 
scrutiny : but they as certainly help to verify facts. Besides, 
the sacred story is every where told in the most natural and 
easy manner. You find in it nothing like design, or artifice ; 



John xix. 27, 34. 



f 1 Cor. xv. 15. 



14 



tto harangues, no apologies, no encomiums. Facts are left 
to speak for themselves. Affecting no excellency of speech, 
the historians of the Gospel determined to know only Jesus 
Christ, even Him that was crucified* — a conduct die more to 
be admired, when we consider that their theme would have 
supplied them with abundant variety of the most pathetic 
declamation. 

(2.) And the freedom, with which they record even 
the humiliating circumstances relating to their Lord and 
Master, equally vouches for their integrity. They scruple 
not to own, that his country was infamous, his birth and 
education low, and his life indigent : that by the rulers he 
was accused of sabbath-breaking, sedition, and blasphemy,, 
while he was reviled by the populace as a demoniac and a 
wine-bibber ; and at last, through the joint clamours of both, 
after enduring much terror and agony of spirit, ignominiously 
executed as one of the vilest of malefactors ! With respect 
to themselves, they admit not only the meanness of their 
original employments, and in some instances the scandals of 
their former life ; but also their remaining prejudices and 
errors — their slowness of apprehension, their cowardice, 
their ambition, their temerity, and their unbelief. Their sole 
•concern obviously is, the true and the simple ; the power of 
God> and the wisdom of God.f 

(5.) Nob are plainness and honesty their only charac- 
teristics. In their writings, more particularly the Epistolary 
parts of the New Testament, we find striking examples of 
the most devout and generous disposition : and to the 
workings of that holy temper, which they everywhere dis- 
play, we may justly ascribe whatever of virtue and goodness 
are still to be found in the world. In letters especially 
addressed to intimate friends, to whom the mind naturally 
opens itself without disguise, if we incidentally discover 
traits of unaffected benevolence and piety, no candid judge 
would lightly pronounce them to be counterfeit. And, in 
proportion to the improbability that the writers of such 
letters would be guilty of any notorious wickedness, should 
fee the positive evidence of thtir guilt. Yet, if the testimony 
of the Apostles was false (sinee they could not have been 
mistaken), without any such positive evidence, of such noto- 
rious wickedness must they have been guilty — guilty, not in 
one or two, but in a thousand instances. Their whole life, 
in effect, must have been one continued scene of perjury. 



* 1 Cor. ii. 1, 2. 



f lb. i. 24. 



15 



And the inhumanity of their conduct would have beem 
equal to it's impiety ; as they must have been consciously 
beguiling men to venture their entire future happiness on the 
power and the fidelity of One, whom upon this hypothesis 
they knew to be an impostor ! To have done all this in the 
face of the most strenuous opposition, thus exposing them- 
selves as well as their duped followers to certain temporal 
ruin, enhances at once the guilt and the idiotism of the 
undertaking. It appears, indeed, utterly improbable that 
any twelve men could have been found — we say not, in 
Judaea, but in any part of the earth — who would have entered, 
upon any terms whatever, into so black a confederacy. Can 
the reader then, more particularly after recollecting what 
has been above stated respecting the character of the 
Apostles, in his heart believe twelve such men to have 
engaged in it? 

3. Especially, as they could not be under any temp- 
tation to do so. Gain and glory must, assuredly, have been, 
equally out of the question. Does it, indeed, look like a con- 
trivance of artful men, to charge their rulers with having 
crucified the Son of God ? The plainest understanding could 
not but foresee, that those rulers would immediately employ 
their whole power against the authors of so heavy a crimi- 
nation. And, accordingly, one of their body was soon 
afterward stoned, and another beheaded ; while most of the 
rest, scattered abroad into strange cities, had to struggle 
against the Jewish anticipation of a temporal Messiah, which 
rendered the doctrine of Christ crucified an insurmountable 
stumbling-block to the greater part of their infatuated fellow- 
countrymen.* 

Neither could they reasonably expect, that the Gen- 
tiles would readily renounce the Gods of their ancestors 
in favour of One, who had died the death of a slave; or 
exchange without reluctance the pompous ceremonies and 
gross sensualities of their religion for the simple worship of 
an invisible Deity, and a set of precepts professing to control 
not only the enormities of men's actions, but also the 
irregularities of their hearts — and all this, on the strength of 
arguments deduced from views of a future state of happiness 
or misery to be dispensed by their crucified Jesus, and on the 
affirmation of men unlettered and unknown ! And if they 
foiled in their undertaking, what could they expect, but to 
be persecuted by one class of those whom they addressed, 



» 1 Cor. i. 2. J. 



16 



as blasphemers or rebels, and by another to be insulted as 
madmen or fools ? That such indeed would be the case, 
they assure us, their Lord had often foretold them ; and 
they, in their turn, warned their followers to be prepared for 
it. But those admonitions and convictions only rendered 
them more courageous to resist, even unto blood.* Is it, 
then, in the slightest degree probable, that any persons of 
common sense would engage in an imposture, from which 
they could not on their own principles hope to derive any 
thing but infamy and ruin in this world, and damnation in 
the next ? 

4. Under the influence, however, of some unaccount- 
able phrensy if they had ventured on the attempt, they must 
(humanly speaking) infallibly have perished in it ; both from 
the nature of the grand fact which they asserted, and the 
methods which they adopted to gain it belief. 

(l.) The story of the Resurrection of a dead being, and 
of his subsequent ascent into heaven, would of course by it's 
strangeness generate a thousand objections ; and some extra- 
ordinary proof would, therefore, be required to encounter 
them. How indeed, without some such proof, could such a 
story obtain credit ? When, and where, could it first begin 
to be received ? In the same, or in a succeeding age ? At 
Jerusalem, where it was stated to have happened, or in 
Greece, or Italy, or Asia, or Africa ? Change the time, and 
the scene, as you please : the difficulty remains. Suppose 
twelve men in London were now to affirm, that a person 
executed there six weeks, six months, or six years ago as a 
malefactor, was a prophet sent from God with supernatural 
powers, had been raised from the dead, conversed with 
them after his revival, and was subsequently taken up into 
heaven — would their united testimony cause them to be 
believed ? Or, suppose them dispersed; and that while one 
or two told their story at Leicester, or Derb} 7 , or York, 
others carried it to Paris, Vienna, and Madrid. Could they 
hope for any thing better, than to be treated as idiots or 
lunatics ? And, if they endeavoured to mend their scheme 
by stating that the transaction took place one or two hun- 
dred years before, without any historical proof whatever, 
would they not thereby rather increase than remove the 
difficulty ? Particularly if, in consequence of such all eged 
facts, they called upon their hearers to renounce the reli- 
gion of their forefathers, the indulgence of their dearest 



* Heb, xu\ 4* 



17 

passions, and the pursuit of their highest worldly interests ; 
and even to hazard, in many instances, their liberties and 
their lives, on the prospect of an indefinite reward to be 
bestowed in a time and state, which no mortal eye had ever 
witnessed ? If this is a case not now to be admitted as pro- 
bable, why should it be admitted that it probably happened 
seventeen or eighteen hundred years ago ? 

(2.) But had it been the most plausible imposture that the. 
wit of man could have devised, the methods adopted by it's 
framers to procure it credit must alone have sufficed utterly 
to defeat their project. They asserted, not only that they had 
seen miracles wrought by Jesus of Nazareth, but also that 
they had themselves been endowed with miraculous gifts, 
which they undertook to display in works far transcending 
human power, bestowing (a$ they pretended) sight on the 
blind, soundness on the leper, activity on the lame, and oc- 
casionally even life on the dead ; and that not in a corner, 
amidst a circle of dependents, or on a group of confederates ; 
but often in the public streets, under the eye of enemies, and 
on the persons of strangers, in many cases well known to be 
beyond the reach of medical skill ! Would impostors have 
dared to make such pretensions ; or, daring to make them, 
would they not infallibly have been detected ? 

It may be said, that perhaps the Apostles did not un- 
dertake to do these things on the spot, but only asserted that 
1 they had done them elsewhere.' But would such an asser- 
tion have been believed ? Who, especially that knew little 
of Peter, would have taken it upon his bare word, that he 
saw Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead at Bethany ? And 
yet fewer would have credited his affirmation, that he had 
himself raised Dorcas at Joppa; unless he had actually 
wrought some equivalent miracle in their presence. 

But to come still closer to the point — From the New Tes- 
tament, which has above been pro ved to be genuine, it appears 
that the Apostles state themselves to have wrought miracles 
in the sight of those, to whom their speeches or writings were 
addressed ; nay, to have conferred upon some of them a similar 
power f Could there be any ro om for delusion here ? Upon 
this subject, Paul appeals even to the Corinthians and Ga- 
latians,* among whom were several persons disposed to 
seize every opportunity of subverting his infl ue ;ce : and 
could they have desired a better than was furnished by an 
appeal which, had not the fact referred to been true, must ut- 

* 1 Cor. i. 5, 7, &c. &c. ; Gal. Hi. 2, 5, 

c 



IS 



ferly have disgusted his most zealous friends? The same 
remark applies to his advices and reproofs relative to the 
use, and abuse, of their spiritual (or supernatural) gifts, about 
which, unless those gifts had really been bestowed, it would 
obviously have been absurd to write. 

5. Yet they certainly gained extensive credit, and met 
with astonishing success. From the epistles contained in the 
New Testament we find that, at a very early period, there were 
Christian congregations in Rome, Corinth, Ephesus, Colosse,, 
Thessalonica,Phuippi,Laodicea,Smyrna,Pergamos, Thyatira, 
Sardis, Philadelphia, Crete, Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, 
Bithynia, and many other places : so immense was the num- 
ber proselyted by the preaching of the Apostles ! Perfectly 
satisfactory, therefore, must have been the evidence which 
they adduced; as- the new converts cheerfully ventured their 
all, in both worlds, upon the strength of it. 

It cannot be objected to them, that ' those converts were 
exclusively of the lower orders, whose understandings they had 
perplexed and misled by laboured arguments beyond their 
comprehension;' for several of them, we know (Sergius 
Paulus, Dionysius the Areopagite^ the domestics of Caesar's 
household, &c.) occupied superior stations in life; and we 
know, also, that the Apostles almost invariably appealed to 
simple faats — facts, which their hearersthemselveshadinsome 
instances witnessed, and in others personally experienced. 



6. These facts, therefore, must be admitted to be true ; 
and the Gospel, of course, to be a Divine Revelation. 

The first teachers of Christianity assert, that Jesus was 
proved to be the Christ by Prophecies accomplished in him, 
and Miracles wrought by him and by others in his name. 

(l.) In their disputes with the Jews, they frequently argued 
from the Prophecies of the Old Testament, many of which 
(they contended) were literally fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth „ 
Fortunately these prophecies, which are still extant in their 
original language, have been constantly in the hands of a 
people implacably adverse to the Gospel. And in them we 
find, that God clearly announced his purpose of raising up for 
his people an illustrious Deliverer, who should come before 
the government ceased in the tribe of Judah, a little prior to 
the destruction of the second Temple, and about four hun- 
dred and ninety years after a command given to rebuild Je- 
rusalem : that he should be the seed of Abraham, born of a 
virgin, of the house of David, in the town of Bethlehem ; 



but that, though he should exhibit a perfect pattern of 
universal holiness, and work many beneficial miracles, he 
should for want of external splendour be rejected, and at 
length put to death by the Jews. They farther add, that he 
should be raised from the dead before his body had seen 
corruption, and received into heaven to sit at the right hand 
of God, whence he should pour out his spirit upon his fol- 
lowers ; in consequence of which, though the mass of the 
Jews should resist their progress to their own discomfiture, 
the Gentiles should be converted, and a kingdom established 
among them, to spread to the ends of the earth and continue 
to the remotest ages. 

Cas we then wonder (with our knowledge of the veri- 
fication of these prophecies) that those, who searched the 
Scriptures daily, should receive the word with all readiness of 
mind?* Or can we suppose, that God would permit so great 
a variety of predictions, uttered by so many different persons 
and in so many different periods, to have their exact ac- 
complishment in an impostor ? 

In preaching to Heathens, who were less competent 
judges of the argument from Prophecy than the Jews, the 
Apostles insisted chiefly on the argument from Miracles. Of 
these, several were of such a nature, as to exclude all possi- 
bility of imposition or deceit. The Resurrection of Christ 
himself, in particular (as they well knew) was a fact, which 
once believed, left no doubt of the rest. And this, upon 
which they frequently lay the whole stress of their cause, they 
proved to be true by their own testimony miraculously con- 
firmed. The inference is irresistible ; since it is not to be 
imagined, that God would raise the dead body of a deceiver, 
who had solemnly appealed to such a resurrection as the 
grand proof of his mission, and expressly fixed the very day 
on which it should take place. 

Here we should Close the subject, were we not able, 
in confirmation of what has been above advanced, to prove 
lastly, 

7. That much has occurred, subsequently to the first 
propagation of the Gospel, to corroborate these evidences of 
it's truth. 

I. For let us but consider, what God has been doing, 
during the last eighteen centuries, for it's establishment, 
(l.) It's surprising diffusion in the world; 
(2.) The miraculous powers bestowed not only upon 



* Acts, xvii. 11. 
c 2 



20 



the Apostles, but also upon succeeding teachers and 

converts ; 

(5.) The accomplishment of prophecies delivered in the 
New Testament ; end, finally, 

(4.) The preservation of the Jews, amidst all their per- 
secutions, as a distinct people. 

(l.) In addition to what has been previously inferred 
from the astonishing propagation of Christianity on it's first 
appearance (viz. that * it could not be an imposture)' it may 
be remarked as amazing, that even truth itself, under so 
many external disadvantages, should have had so illustrious 
a triumph. 

Pliny, in the very next age to that of the Apostles, in- 
forms us that ' he found the heathen temples in Achaia almost 
deserted ;' * and Tertullian subsequently boasts, that * if the 
Christians were to withdraw, whole cities and provinces 
would be dispeopled.'f Now had the Gospel, instead of op- 
posing, been adapted to favour the vices, the errors, the 
interests, or the superstitions of mankind, we might more 
easily have accounted for this rapid prevalence : had it num- 
bered philosophers and orators among it's missionaries, or 
princes and high-priests among it's patrons, eloquence might 
have charmed, or force compelled, multitudes into an osten- 
sible acceptance of it's doctrines. But, Without some such 
advantages, we can hardly conceive how any new religion 
should so suddenly gather strength, even in the darkest ages 
and the most barbarous countries. All these however, we 
know, w^ere in array against it. And yet it triumphed over 
them all — triumphed, though published in an age the most en- 
lightened, and countries the most refined ; with the utmost 
plainness of language, and under the revolting prohibition of 
their favourite idol-worship. 

(2.) With regard to the miraculous powers exercised by 
the successors of the Apostles, in confirmation of the Chris- 
tian doctrines, it may suffice to appeal to the authorities of 
TertullianJ and Minutius Felix,$ 

(3.) But we must not forget to record the accomplish- 
ment of the New Testament prophecies, particularly that 
delivered by Christ respecting the destruction of Jerusalem. |j 
Of this tragical event the circumstantial description furnish- 
ed by the pen of Josephus (a Jewish priest, who had himself 



* Epist. x. 97. f Apol. xxxv ii. f lb. xxii. 



5 lb. xxvii. 



(j Matt, xsiv. 



21 



been an eye-witness of it) so minutely corresponds with the 
prediction, that had we not known the contrary, we could 
hardly have helped concluding it had been written by a 
Christian in order to illustrate it. What our Lord, likewise, 
foretold relative to the long-continued desolation of the 
Jewish Temple, was supernatural ly verified; for we are 
assured by a heathen historian, that * when Julian the Apos- 
tate, in deliberate contempt of that prophecy, solemnly un- 
dertook to rebuild it, his impious project was miraculously 
frustrated again and again by globes of fire bursting out 
from the foundation.' * Similar observations might be made 
upon the predictions of St. Paul concerning the Man of Sinf 
and the Apostasy of the Latter Times, J and those of St. John 
delivered in the Apocalypse. 

(4.) The continuance of the Jews too as a distinct peo- 
ple, notwithstanding all the persecutions which they have 
undergone, deserves our attentive regard. Scattered as they 
are, more especially throughout every part of Christendom, 
and exposed on account of their different faith not only to 
humiliation and contempt, but also in most places to civil 
incapacities and unchristian severities, they are still obstinate- 
ly tenacious of their religion (particularly, of it's ceremonial 
institutions) although their forefathers were so prone to 
apostatise from it. 

This their providential dispersion and pertinacity, by 
exhibiting to us the accomplishment of many remarkable 
predictions, § incontestibly establishes the truth of those an- 
cient Hebrew records, on which much of the evidence of the 
Gospel depends — records so full to the purpose, that had the 
whole body of the Jewish nation been converted to Christi- 
anity, men would certainly have looked upon them (with 
the prophecies of the Sibyls) as made many years after the 
events, which they pretend to foretell. 

II. Let us next inquire, what methods have been adopted 
by the enemies of the Gospel to destroy it. 



falsehood, or cavilling at some petty and obscure particulars 
in the revelation j without entering into the great argument 



* Aram. Marceli. xxiii. f 2 Thess. iii. 3—12. \ 1 Tim. iv. 1—3. 

§ See Jackson's { Eternal Truth of the Scriptures,' &c. 
I. i. § 3, 10—13. 



These have generally 




persecution, or 



22 



<©n which it is built, and fairly debating what has been offered 
In it's defence. 

From the very outset, bonds and imprisonment awaited 
it's preachers. This evinced a consciousness, on the 
part of the Jewish rulers, that they were unable to 
support their cause by the fair exertion of reason ; as they 
would not, in that case, have had recourse to the inter- 
position of brutal force. In subsequent periods, the cruelties 
inflicted by the heathen Emperors, especially during the Ten 
General Persecutions, were such as moved the pity even of 
the enemies of Christianity. * 

Not contented however with personal inflictions, those 
enemies attempted to destroy the reputations of it's ad- 
herents : charging them with human sacrifices, incest, idolatry, 
and all the crimes for which they themselves and their own 
imaginary Gods were indeed justly detestable; but from 
which the Christians amply vindicated themselves by many 
noble Apologies still extant, and incomparably the most 
valuable of any ancient uninspired writings. 

To descend to later tiges — The antagonists of the Gospel 
among ourselves have been told, again and again, that * we put 
the proof of it on plain fact.' 

They cannot deny, that it prevailed in the world early 
and extensively. By some man, or body of men, it must have 
been introduced. Those, as they generally admit, were Christ 
and his Apostles. The latter, if their testimony was false, 
must have been enthusiasts, or impostors. Afraid of encoun- 
tering the insuperable obstacles attached to either side of this 
alternative, our modern Deists decline both; and confine 
themselves to some miserable cavils, by which they affect to 
prove that to be in the highest degree improbable, if not im- 
possible, which we have proved to be fact. One pronounces 
the light of nature to be a sufficient rule, and therefore sets 
aside all revelation as superfluous. Another disguises the 
miracles of Christ by misrepresentation, and then ridicules 
them as absurd. A third dabbles in pedantic conjectures 
upon the prophecies. But not one of them has undertaken 
to answer, directly, what has been advanced in demonstration 
of the grand fact; nay, they generally take no more notice of 
the positive evidence in it's favour, than if they had never 
fieard it proposed ! 

P»oM a warfare so conducted, it was impossible that 



* Tac. Ann* xv, 44, 



23 



Christianity should not be a great gainer. The Gospel hat 
come like gold out of the furnace. Some late writers indeed, 
who have taken a prominent part in the wretched cause of in- 
fidelity, have been permitted (as it were, by a kind of judicial 
infatuation) to fall into such senseless inconsistencies, such 
mean buffoonery and scurrility, nay, such palpable falsehoods 
— in a word, into such a malignant superfluity of naughtiness — 
that to a wise and pious mind they must appear like those 
venomous creatures, who are said to carry in their bowels an 
antidote to their own poison. 

The Sum of what has been adduced is as follows : 
The Gospel is probable in theory : as, considering the 
nature of God and the circumstances of mankind, there was 
reason to hope that a Revelation might be given ; and that, 
if given, it would most probably be accompanied by evidence 
internally such as that of the Gospel is, and externally such 
as it is said to be. 

But Christianity is, also, true in fact. For it was early 
professed, as it was first introduced by Jesus of Nazareth, 
whose life and doctrines were recorded by his immediate 
attendants in books still extant in their original language, and 
faithfully translated into our own ; so that they may be de- 
pended upon as assuredly written by the persons, whose 
names they bear. Hence the truth of the Gospel is easily 
deduced : for these authors, undoubtedly, knew the certainty 
of the facts which they related ; and from their character and 
situation we can never believe, that they would have at- 
tempted to deceive the world, or if they had, that they would 
have succeeded. Yet they did succeed, in a most surprising 
manner. Their story, therefore, must have been true; and 
consequently the dispensation of the Cross, founded upon 
that story, divine. This conclusion is greatly strengthened 
by what has occurred, in various ways, subsequently to the 
first publication of it. 



Let us, therefore, gratefully acknowledge the goodness of 
God in having favoured us with so excellent a Revelation, 
and confirmed it by such irresistible testimony ; and pitying 
those who, with abundant opportunities of investigating that 
testimony, continue in their infidelity, let us remember how 
incumbent it is upon ourselves to adopt an opposite line of 
conduct. Let it be deeply impressed upon our minds, that 
this Gospel was not introduced with such aweful sanctions, 
prophecies so solemn and miracles so magnificent, to be re- 



21 



jecfed and dishonoured at pleasure : but that as it shall de* 
termine, we shall all, from the greatest to the least of us, be 
happy or miserable for ever. And let it be our constant 
care, while we defend it with our tongues, to adorn it by 
our examples ; in the midst of a crooked and perverse ge- 
neration shining as lights in the world, and so holding forth the; 
tvord of 



* Phil.ji. 15, 



AN 



APOLOGY 

FOR 

THE BIBLE; 

ABRIDGED FROM 

BISHOP WATSON'S 

ANSWER TO THE SECOND PART OF 

PAINE'S AGE OF REASON. 

By the Rev. FRANCIS WRANGHAM. 

u Let all the nations be gathered together, and all the people 
be assembled : who among them can declare this, and show us 
former things ? Let them bring forth their witnesses, that they 
may be justified; or let them hear, and say, It is truth." — 
Isai. xliii. 9. 

[Only Fifty Copies on Demy 8uo.~\ 



1820. 



205449 
,'13 



i 



ADVERTISEMENT. 

Among the individuals actively employed in stemming the tide of 
blasphemy and impiety, is one, who has spent a long life 
most successfully in similar labours. The subjoined state- 
ment is said, but I know not upon what authority to be the 
production of her pen. 

< SOME ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE AND DEATH OF MR. 
THOMAS PAINE. 

i The life of this unhappy man affords a striking example of the 
effect of such principles, as he professed, upon the moral 
conduct. He began his career in life with defrauding a 
public office in London, in which he had been employed, and 
from which he was consequently obliged to fly. 

4 Jt is no less a fact, that his next employer was under the neces- 
sity of dismissing him from his house, for loose and immoral 
conduct with his wife. After his escape from France, he 
took up his residence in America, where he is thus described 
by Mrs. Dean, with whom he lodged : — " He never failed to 
get drunk daily, and even in his sober moments constantly 
disturbed the peace, and destroyed the comfort of the family 
by his brutal violence and detestable filthiness." On leaving 
her he engaged in a farm, hiring an old black woman to at- 
tend him, who lived with him only three weeks. Like her 
master, she was every day intoxicated ; and often would they 
lie prostrate on tlie same floor, swearing arid threatening to 
fight, though incapable from extreme intoxication of ap- 
proaching each other. His next servant, a poor old woman, 
was obliged to prosecute him for the amount of her wages. 

( During the whole of the week preceding his death, he never 
failed to get drunk twice a day. It appears likewise from a 
reproachful letter of a brother Jacobin and infidel, w/io had 
loaded him with favours which he repaid with the vilest in- 
gratitude, and who had lent him money which he would never 
repay at all — that he had seduced a French woman from her 
husband, and afterward refused to discharge the debt cm- 
traded for her board and lodging, and exulted in liaving been 
the ruin of the man who vainly sued him for it. The letter 
subsequently describes the nauseous and disgusting situation 
from which it's writer had relieved him, in doing which he 
witnessed scenes too detestable to be exposed to public view. 



vi 

* Hov.) far Paine maintained his principles to the close of his 
days, and what effect they produced upon him at the near 
approach of death, we shall gather from the following account 
given by Dr. Manly, who attended him in his last illness: — ■ 
" During the latter part of his life, he would not allow his 
curtain to be closed at any time ; and when it unavoidably 
happened, that he was left alone by day or by night, he would 
scream and halloo till some person came to him. There ivas 
something remarkable in his conduct about this period ( which 
comprises the fortnight immediately before his death) when 
we refect that Thomas Paine was author of' several books 
denying our Lord Jesus Christ, and deriding every part of 
Revealed Religion. He would call out during his paroxysms 
of distress, without intermission, " O Lord help me! God 
help me ! Jesus Christ help me ! fyc." repeating the same ex- 
pressions without the least variation, and in a tone of voice 
that would alarm the house. Two or three days before his 
death, when he was constantly uttering the words above-men- 
tioned, Dr. Manly said to him, " What must we think of 
your present conduct ! Why do you call upon Jesus Christ 
to help youl Do you believe that he can help you? Do 
you believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ! Give me an 
answer, as from the lips of a dying man." Paine made no 
reply : but to a lady, who constantly visited and relieved him 
on his death-bed, after asking Iter " If she had read one of 
his works ?" and being answered, that " she thought it one 
of the most wicked books she had ever seen, and had therefore 
burnt it ;" he replied, that (i he wished all who had read it 
had been equally wise"— adding, " If ever the Devil had 
an agent upon earth, I am that man !" 
* On June 8, 1 809, at the age of seventy-two, died this miserable 
reprobate, who at the close of the eighteenth century endea- 
voured to persuade the common people of England, that all 
was wrong in that government and that religion, which had 
been transmitted to them by their forefathers. For the sake 
vf England and humanity, it is to be wished that his impos- 
tures and his memory wail rot together.* 

F. W. 

March 30, 1820. 



AN 

APOLOGY 

FOR 

THE BIBLE, 
Sfc. 



THE OLD TESTAMENT. 
I. 

Books in support of religion are, in general, read 
with less eagerness, and remembered with greater diffi- 
culty, than those which favour infidelity : and the reason 
is obvious. Men readily believe what they wish ; and 
the Christian religion being opposite to fraudulent deal- 
ings in our intercourse with others, to intemperance ; 
the gratification of our own appetites, and to all the sins 
and vices which men are prone to, it cannot be a matter 
of surprise that many profligate and many thoughtless 
persons should listen with greediness to whatever frees 
them from it's influence. 

This principle will account for the fatal avidity, with 
which the sophistries of Paine, in his ' Age of Reason,' 
originally possessing little of novelty, have of late been 
revived and circulated in this country : sophistries, cal- 
culated to root out of the minds of the unhappy virtuous 
all their comfortable assurance of a future recompence ; 
to annihilate, in the minds of the flagitious, all their 
fears of future punishment ; and, by giving the reins to 
passion, to introduce all the public insecurity and the 
private misery necessarily connected with a state of cor- 
rupted mortals. What, indeed, has not society to dread 
from those, who may have deeply imbibed the wicked 
opinions of that and similar books ? 



( .8 ) 

Have their writers, it may be asked, calmly examined 
all the arguments, by which the truth of Revealed Reli- 
gion has been, to the satisfaction of learned and impar- 
tial men, fully established ? Thousands of such men- 
laymen too, of the most splendid talents (since priests, 
it seems, by the liberal apostles of the new Creed are 
deemed unworthy of attention) have embraced this 
religion as true. Could all these men be involved in 
the darkness of ignorance, or shackled by the chains of 
superstition ? 

Without any elaborate inquiry into the authenticity of 
the Scriptures, which has been so frequently and so 
ably handled as neither to want, nor perhaps even to 
admit, farther proof — it may safely be affirmed, in gene- 
ral terms, on the authority of all the ancient books in 
the world (sacred and profane, Christian, Jewish, and 
Pagan) that the Bible is the Word of God. This the 
Deist pronounces to be impossible, because among other 
things it is therein said, that ' the Israelites destroyed 
the Canaanites by the divine command/ and that would 
be repugnant to the moral justice of God ; for ' wherein 
(he asks) could crying or smiling infants offend ?' Now 
mark the inconsistency, with which he adduces this oft- 
refuted objection of former infidels. He admits the uni- 
verse to be the work of God ; and, of course, he must 
allow it to be in harmony with his moral justice to suffer 
' crying or smiling infants' to be drowned by a flood, 
consumed by a fire, or starved by a famine. The Chris- 
tian believes that the earth, at the express command of 
God, swallowed up Koran, Dathan, and Abiram with 
their wives, and their sons, and their little children *. 
This procedure the Deist deems so radically unjust, that 
he spurns as spurious the book, in which it is related. 
He reads in other records that Catania, Lima, and Lis- 
bon were severally destroyed by earthquakes, and their 
inhabitants with their wives, their sons, and their Utile 
children swallowed up. Why does he not disbelieve 
these statements also ? Or, believing them, why does 
he not spurn as spurious the book of Nature, in which 



* Xumb. xvi. 27. 



( 9 ) 

they are written ; instead of inferring from the perusal 
of it, as he does infer, the moral justice of God ? 
Surely, it is most unfair to urge, as an argument against 
Revealed Religion, an apparent deviation from moral jus- 
tice ; when an equally apparent deviation from it is not 
allowed to have any weight as an argument against Na- 
tural Religion. 

The Canaanites had been devoted to destruction, as a 
wicked people, even in the time of Abraham ; but their 
iniquity was not, then, full. In the time of Moses, they 
were gross idolaters ; sacrificers of their own * crying 
or smiling infants/ devourers of human flesh, addicted 
in short to every species of the foulest profligacy. Was 
it contrary to the moral justice of God, to exterminate 
so wicked a people ? By his terrible vengeance, while 
the surrounding nations were struck with astonishment 
and terror, the Israelites (who were employed, as his 
agents, in the infliction of it) could not fail to receive a 
salutary impression of what they must expect, if they 
should be misled into the practice of similar abomina- 
tions. 

We cannot but feel that the shortness of our lives, 
the weakness of our faculties, and the inadequacy of 
our means of information conspire to make it impossible 
for us, worms of the earth and insects of an hour 1 com- 
pletely to understand any part of God's great plan for 
the moral amelioration of mankind. To some indeed 
it may appear incredible, that the Almighty should have 
conversed with our first parents, and entered into cove- 
nants with the patriarchs ; that he should have sus- 
pended the laws of nature in Egypt ; and partially 
selecting a single nation as his favourites, should have 
condescended to draw up for their use a burthensome 
code of ordinances, ecclesiastical and civil, many of 
them apparently far below the dignity of a divine 
legislator. " Nothing similar," says the Deist, " has 
happened in my time ; and therefore I do not be- 
lieve that it ever really happened at any time." As 
well might a man contend, that he never needed or ex- 
perienced the care of a mother, the attention of a nurse 
or the discipline of a schoolmaster. God selected one 



( io ) 

family from an idolatrous world ; reared it into a great 
people ; communicated to it a knowledge of his holiness, 
justice, mercy, wisdom, and power; and disseminated 
it, at various times, throughout the earth, as a leaven to 
leaven the whole lump. Why should what was thus done 
to a single nation, for the general good, be done to all 
nations ? Why should the mode of instruction, adapted 
to the infancy of the world, be extended to it's man- 
hood? Why do we not rather, when we contemplate 
the dormant intellect of man in his savage state, and 
his miserable attainments (independently of divine in- 
struction) as to the knowledge of God in a civilised 
state, admire the wisdom and goodness of that great 
Being in having thus let himself down, as it were, pro- 
portionately to our apprehensions ; and, after giving in 
the earliest ages extraordinary proofs of his existence 
and attributes, in having made the Jewish and Christian 
Dispensations mediums to convey to his rational crea- 
tures, throughout all ages, that knowledge of himself 
which he had communicated immediately to the first ? 
If it be alleged, that ' such an immediate manifestation 
of himself is strange/ it may be demanded in reply, 
" What is there, that is not strange ?" It is strange to 
each of us, that we are here ; that there is water, and 
earth, and air, and fire ; that there is a sun, and moon, 
and stars ; that there is generation, corruption, and re- 
production. For none of these things can we ultimately 
account, without recurring to Him who made every 
thing. His works, as well as his word, are incompre- 
hensible : but the former we cannot deny ; and the 
latter has assured us of all that we are concerned to 
know — that he hath prepared everlasting happiness for 
those, who love and obey him. 

II. 

As the Deist affects to establish a difference between 
the evidence necessary to prove the authenticity of the 
Bible and that of any other ancient work, it may be 
necessary to state distinctly the difference between the 
' genuineness' and the 1 authenticity* of a book. A 



( n ) 



? genuine' book is one which was written by the person, 
whose name it bears as the author of it. An ( authentic' 
book is one, which relates matters of fact as they really 
happened. The books containing the novels of Richard- 
son and Fielding are genuine, though the stories them- 
selves are fables. Anson's Voyage, on the other hand, 
may be deemed authentic, as probably containing a 
true narrative of events ; but it is not a genuine book, 
having been written, not by Walters to whom it is attri- 
buted, but by Robins. 

The Deist's argument, then, stands thus. * If it be 
found that the books ascribed to Moses, Joshua, and 
Samuel were not written by Moses, Joshua, and 
Samuel, every part of their authority is gone at once!" 
But this, if we concede the hypothesis for the sake of 
the argument, in fact only affects their genuineness. 
Their authenticity may remain. Though the names of 
the authors should be found to be different from what 
they are generally supposed to be, the transactions re- 
corded in the books themselves may be strictly and 
universally true. Had the above writers, indeed, as- 
serted that ' they composed the books respectively 
ascribed to them/ and this had turned out to be false, 
then the authority of the whole must have totally- 
vanished ; as such a proof of their want of veracity in 
one point would have justly invalidated their testimony 
in every other. The same may be pronounced of works, 
whose authors are unknown. Anonymous testimony 
does not destroy the reality of the facts, which it affirms. 
Had Lord Clarendon published his History of the Re- 
bellion without prefixing his name to it, the events 
recorded in it would have remained equally certain. 

The Deist asserts, that ' the miracles recorded in 
Tacitus, and in other profane historians, are quite as 
well authenticated as those of the Bible/ To this asser- 
tion, utterly destitute as it is of proof, it may be replied 
that the evidence for the Bible-miracles is, both in kind 
and degree, so greatly superior to that for the heathen 
prodigies, as to have justified the most candid and 
enlightened of men in deeming the first the work of 
God, and in wholly disbelieving the latter. There is 



( 12 ) 

one signal difference, however, between ancient and 
modern scepticism. The unbeliever of the third and 
fourth century allowed, that Jesus wrought miracles ; 
but he contended, that his Apollonius, &c. wrought 
miracles also : whereas the later Deist denies the 
fact of Jesus having ever wrought miracles at all. 
Aware that if he admits the contrary, he must 
admit Christianity to be true, he has fabricated a 
sophistical axiom, that ' no human testimony can esta- 
blish the credibility of a miracle and upon this, though 
it has been an hundred times refuted, he still pertina- 
ciously insists, as if it could not be disproved ! 

Beginning with the first five books of the Bible — 
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, 
the Deist affects to show, that ' Moses was not the 
author of them, as they were not written till several 
hundred years after his time ; being, in fact, no other 
than an attempted history of his life, and the times in 
which he is said to have lived (as well as of the times 
preceding) drawn up by some very ignorant and stupid 
pretender to authorship/ This difficulty, though no 
new discovery, was never heard of till the twelfth cen- 
tury ; when Aben Ezra, a Jew of great erudition (with 
no purpose, however, of discrediting the work in gene- 
ral) noticed some passages, which he thought had been 
inserted in these books after the death of Moses. 
Hobbes, Spinoza, and Le Clerc believed that the books 
of Moses were so called, not from their having been 
written by him, but in consequence of their containing 
an account of his life. The latter however, who was 
an able theologian of the eighteenth century, upon 
attaining maturity was ashamed of what he had written 
in his younger years, and publicly retracted his error. 

Neither is the Bible the only book, which has under- 
gone the fate of being reprobated as spurious after 
having been received as genuine and authentic for many 
ages. It has been maintained, that the i History of He- 
rodotus was compiled in the time of Constantine ; and 
that the classics, in general, are forgeries of the thir- 
teenth or fourteenth century !' 

As a preliminary objection, the Deist asserts, that 



( 13 ) 

4 there is no affirmative evidence that Moses was the 
author of the books in question.' No affirmative evi- 
dence ! In the eleventh century, Maimonides drew up 
a confession of faith for the Jews, which is admitted by 
them all at this day. It consists of only thirteen arti- 
cles, of which one affirms the authenticity, and the other 
the genuineness, of the books of Moses. This has been 
the faith of the Jews ever since the destruction of their 
city and Temple ; it was their faith, when the authors of 
the New Testament wrote; it was their faith during 
their Captivity in Babylon; it was their faith in the time 
of their kings, and their judges ; and no period can be 
shown, from the age of Moses down to the present hour, 
in which it was not their faith. Is this no affirmative 
evidence ? Josephus affirms these books to have been 
written by Moses : Juvenal speaks of the volume, which 
Moses had written. But why enumerate the long list of 
profane authors, all bearing testimony to the fact of 
Moses being the leader and lawgiver of the Jewish 
nation ? And if a giver, surely a writer, of their laws. 
The Scriptures teem with passages * to the same pur- 
port. 

Even if it were admitted, that some learned Jew com- 
posed these books from public records many years after 
the death of Moses, it would not follow (as it has been 
already stated) that there is no truth in them. And it 
cannot be said, that the Jews had no public records ; 
for the Bible itself furnishes abundance of proof to the 
contrary. But the arguments (so they are denominated) 
adduced to prove that these books were not, as to the 
main part of them, written by Moses, are both weak 
and trite. 

The first is, that ' they are written in the third person 
" The Lord said unto Moses," or " Moses said unto the 
Lord," &c This, the Deist asserts, is the stile used by 
historians in speaking of a person, whose life they are 
drawing up. True : and it is the stile also used bv 
eminent men, such as Xenopbon and Josephus, in speak- 
ing of themselves. If General Washington had written 



* Exod. xxiv, 7. Deut. xxxi. 24, &c. &c 



( 1* ) 



the History of the American War, in which from his 
great modesty he might have spoken of himself in the 
third person, would it be reasonable that on this account, 
two or three thousand years hence, the truth of his nar- 
rative should be called in question ? Caesar writes of 
himself in the third person ; " Caesar made a speech," 
" Caesar crossed the Rhine," &c. ; and yet every school- 
boy knows, that this is no argument against his being 
the author of his own Commentaries. 

4 But Moses,' it is alleged, 4 could not be the author 
of the book of Numbers, because he there pronounces 
himself to have been very meek y above all the men which 
wtre upon the face of the earth *. Now admitting that 
this little verse was inserted by Samuel, or any of the 
other countrymen of Moses who knew his character and 
revered his memory, would it follow that therefore 
Moses did not write any part of the five books ascribed 
to his pen ? And yet he might allowably have given 
this character of himself, upon the occasion by which it 
was extorted. Calumniated by his nearest relations, 
Aaron and Miriam, as guilty of pride and fond of power, 
he might justifiably affirm in his own vindication, that 
* his temper was naturally mild and unassuming.' 

Again, the Deist comments on what he invidiously 
calls 4 the dramatic stile* of Deuteronomy. He might 
as reasonably ask, 4 Where the author of Caesar's Com- 
mentaries got the speeches of Ca?sar,' as, 4 Where the 
author of Deuteronomy got the speeches of Moses V 
But his argument that 4 Moses was not the author of 
this book, because the reason assigned in it for the 
observation of the Sabbath is different from that assigned 
in Exodus merits a fuller reply. 

The name 4 Deuteronomy' imports, in Greek, the 4 re- 
petition of a law.' And this repetition was a wise and 
benevolent proceeding in Moses ; that those who were 
either not born, or were mere infants, when that Law 
was forty years before first delivered in Horeb, might 
have an opportunity of knowing it : especially, as their 

* Numb. xii. 3. 

f Compare Exod. xx. 11, with Deut. v. 15. 



( 15 ) 

leader was soon to be taken from them, and they them« 
selves were about to be settled in the midst of vicious 
and idolatrous nations. Where then is the wonder, 
that some variations should be introduced in a law re- 
published many years after it's original promulgation. 

Of the institution of the Sabbath the most probable 
account is, that the memory of the Creation was handed 
down from Adam to his posterity ; and that the seventh 
day was, for a long time, held sacred by all nations in 
commemoration of that event ; but that the peculiar 
rigidness of it's observance was injoined by Moses to the 
Israelites alone. However this may be, the two reasons 
given for it's being kept holy — one, that on that day 
God rested from the work of creation ; the other, that 
on that day He gave rest to the Israelites from the ser- 
vitude of Egypt — involve no contradiction. If an 
author, writing the History of England, should inform 
his readers in one part of his work, that the parliament 
had ordered the fifth of November to be kept holy, 
because on that day God had delivered the nation from 
an intended massacre by gunpowder ; and in another, 
because on that day he had delivered it, by the arrival 
of King William III., from the establishment of popery 
and arbitrary power — would any one thence rightly 
conclude, that he was not justified in both these modes 
of expression, or that he was not the author of them 
both ? 

The Deist farther pronounces brutal * the law re- 
corded in Deuteronomy *, which authorises parents, 
the father and the mother, to bring their own children 
to have them stoned to death for what it is pleased to 
term stubbornness/ Paternal authority, it should be 
remembered, among the Romans, Gauls, Persians, &c. 
extended to the taking away of a child's life. Such an 
extraordinary power Moses, by this law, hindered from 
being introduced or exercised among the Israelites: for 
by it the father and the mother must agree — in what I 
Not in stoning the child, but in bringing him out unto the 
elders of the city, to judge whether it was — not merely 

* Deut. xxi. 18—20. 



( 16 ) 

' stubborn,* but stubborn and rebellious, a glutton and a 
drunkard* So that it was a humane restriction of an 
unjustifiable power. 

But 6 priests,' the Deist sarcastically adds, ' preach 
up Deuteronomy, because Deuteronomy preaches up 
tithes.' Tithes are not preached up more in Deutero- 
nomy than in Leviticus, in Numbers, in Nehemiah, and 
in Malachi \ in the Law, the History, and the Prophets 
of the Jewish nation. The motive, which he invidiously 
alleges for noticing in the table of contents at the head 
of a chapter the prohibition of muzzling the ox *, is as 
incorrect as it is illiberal. It is there noticed, because 
it was subsequently quoted by St. Paul, when he was 
proving to the Corinthians that they, which preached the 
Gospel, should live of the Gospel f. It was St. Paul, not 
the priests, who first applied this phrase to tithing ; 
and, as he did not avail himself of the right for which 
he contended, he was not interested in what he said. 
The right itself he rests, not upon the authority of 
Moses or of Christ, but upon a reason founded in the 
nature of things, and illustrated by the practice of hus- 
bandmen, artists, soldiers, physicians, lawyers, &c. viz. 
that 4 the labourer is worthy of his hire.' Tithes, in- 
deed, were paid in the most ancient times even to kings. 
Four hundred years before the law of Moses was given, 
Abramf paid tithes to the king of Salem, who was 
priest also of the Most High God. But as this rests 
upon the authority of the Bible, to which the Deist ex- 
cepts, another instance may be adduced on what he will, 
perhaps, deem the more satisfactory testimony of a pro- 
fane author. Diogenes Laertius, in his Life of Solon, 
cites a letter of Pisistratus, in which it is affirmed that 
the people of Athens set apart a tenth of the fruits of 
their land to be expended in the public sacrifices for the 
general good.' 



* Exod. xxv. 4. f 1 Cor. ix. 14= $ Gen. xiv. 20, &e> 



( n ) 



Having done with what he calls the 4 grammatical* 
evidence that Moses was not the author of the books 
attributed to him, the Deist now advances to his * his* 
torical and chronological" evidence : and he begins with 
the single word * Dan/ which he contends is incorrectly 
found in Genesis ; as it appears from the book of 
Judges *, that the town of Laish did not receive that 
name till three hundred and thirty years after the death 
of Moses ! This reasoning he illustrates in the follow- 
ing mariner : " Havre-de-Grace was called Havre-Marat 
in 17.93. Should then any dateless writing be found in 
time to come with the name ' Havre-Marat/ it would 
be certain evidence that such a writing must have been 
composed after the year 1793." The conclusion is 
wrong. Supposing some hot republican should now 
publish a new edition of any old history of France, and 
instead of * Havre-de Grace* should substitute * Havre- 
Marat ;* would any one, two or three thousand years 
hence, be justified in rejecting on that account the whole 
history as spurious — especially if he could be referred, 
for a proof of the genuineness of the book, to the testi- 
mony of the whole French nation ? Besides, how is it 
proved, that the Dan mentioned in Genesis is the same 
as the town Dan mentioned in Judges ? that it is indeed 
a town at all, and not a river ? It is merely said, Abram 
pursued them (the enemies of Lot) unto Dan. A river 
was full as likely, as a town, to stop a pursuit : Lot, we 
know, was settled in the plain of Jordan ; and Jordan, 
we know, was composed of the united streams of the 
Jor and the Dan. 

The Deist next asserts, that the 1 passage in Genesis +/ 
which speaks of Kings reigning in Edom before there 
reigned any king over the children of Israel, must have 
been written after the first King (i. e. Saul) began to 
reign over Israel, and consequently long after Moses ! 

* Compare Genesis xiv. 14. and Judges xviii. 29. 
i Gen. xxxvi. 31—39. 

B 



( is ) 

And perhaps these nine verses may have been Inserted 
in the book of Genesis, after the book of Chronicles 
(called in Greek by a name, Paralipomena, importing 
that it contained things * omitted' in the preceding 
books) was written. Such interpolations have happened 
in other works, but have never been considered as in- 
validating the authority of those works. 

The Deist then pronounces, that *' Genesis, stripped 
of the belief that Moses was it's author, is nothing but 
an anonymous book of fables, absurdities, or lies V Let 
him look into a book so common that almost every body- 
has it, and so excellent that no body ought to be with- 
out it, ' Grotius on the Truth of the Christian Reli- 
gion and he will there find, in references to the most 
ancient profane authors, abundant testimony to all the 
principal facts recorded in Genesis, the formation of the 
universe from a chaotic mass, the primeval innocence 
and subsequent fall of man, the longevity of mankind in 
the first ages, the depravity of the antediluvians, and 
the destruction of the world by the flood. The tenth 
chapter of Genesis, instead of telling us that one nation 
sprung from a cricket or a grasshopper, another from an 
oak, another from a mushroom, and another from a 
dragon's tooth, gives a rational account of the repeo- 
pling of the earth, attested by every other book which 
contains any thing upon the subject. 

The saving of the Midianitish maidens*, which is 
grossly imputed by the Deist to motives of lust, to a 
purer eye appears the result of sound policy mingled 
with mercy. The young men might have become 
avengers of their country ; and the matrons would, per- 
haps, again have allured the Israelites to debauchery and 
idolatry : but the young women might without any 
such hazard be reserved, agreeably to the customs of 
those times, for slaves. And it may be asked ' Why, 
admitting the account of the expedition against Midian 
to be a true account, the Deist does not also admit the 
miiaculous facts that, 1 of the twelve thousand' Israel- 
ites engaged in it, there lacked not one man ? That fact 



* Numb. xxxi. IS. 



( 19 ) 

was believed by the captains of thousands and captains of 
hundreds, at the time when it happened ; for they offered 
an oblation to the Lord, an atonement for their souls *. 

In calculating with affected mathematical precision 
the length and breadth of Og's bedstead of iron f, the 
Deist makes no allowance for the size of a royal bed; 
nor ever suspects, that the King of Basan might through 
vanity, like Alexander the Great, have intended by the 
size of his bed to convey to posterity an idea of his 
prodigious stature. Nor, indeed, is the problem yet 
solved — * To what height a human body, preserving it's 
similarity of figure, may be augmented before it will 
perish by it's own weight.* A person who had never 
been out of Shetland might, on proper testimony, have 
believed in the existence of the Lincolnshire Ox, or the 
i largest drayhorse in London; though the oxen and 
horses in Shetland had not been bigger than mastiffs. 

IV. 

As to the * anonymousness of the book of Joshua, 9 
from which the Deist (with his usual mistake) infers it's 
total want of authority, it may be replied, that Dooms- 
day Book also is anonymous ; but our courts of law do 
not, therefore, hold it to be without authority. ' Yes,' 
he may allege ; 4 but Doomsday Book has been pre- 
served with singular care among the records of the na- 
tion.' And who has told him, that the Jews had no 
records, or did not preserve them ' with singular care ?' 
Josephus, the historian of the Jews, expressly affirms 
the contrary. If any one, having access to the Journals 
of the Houses of Lords and Commons, to the archives 
of the Treasury, War Office, and Privy Council, should 
at this day compile a History of the reigns of George I. 
and II., and publish it without his name ; would any 
intelligent man, three or four thousand years hence, 
question the authority of that work, when he knew that 
the whole British nation had received it as authentic 



* Numb. xxxi. 49, 50. + Deut. iii. 2. 

B 2 



( 20 ) 

from the time of it's first publication down to the age in 
which he lived f 

The Deist ridicules the story of 1 an angel's descend- 
ing to Joshua * though his errand was to assure that 
leader, that the same God who had appeared unto Mo- 
ses, ordering him to put off his shoes from off his feet be- 
cause the place whereon he stood was holy grounds, had 
now appeared to himself. Was this no encouragement 
to one, about to engage in war with many nations ? 
Had it no tendency to confirm his faith, and to teach 
him to obey in all things the divine commands ? And 
the shallow objector ought to have known, that putting 
off the shoes was an indication of reverence for the divine 
presence, and that the custom of entering the temples 
barefoot subsists in some countries even to this day. 

The Deist next makes himself merry with what he 
calls the ' tale of the sun standing still upon Mount 
Gibeon and the moon in the valley of Ajalon % assert- 
ing, that * this fable detects itself, because there is not 
a nation in the world that knows any thing about it !' 
And how can he expect there should, when there is not 
a nation in the world, whose authentic annals mount to 
this era by many hundred years ? yet Herodotus says, 
the Egyptian priests informed him, that i( the sun had 
four times deviated from his course, without producing 
any alteration in the climate of Egypt, the fruits of the 
land, or the phenomena of the Nile." This must there- 
fore, apparently, refer to some temporary deviation, such 
as that produced by Joshua, and that in the time of Ahaz 
when the shadow went bach ten degrees^. How thismiracle 
was accomplished, it would be idle, if not impious, to 
attempt to explain : but one, who is not able to explain 
the mode of doing a thing, argues very ill if he thence 
infers that the thing was not done at all |J. We do not 
deny that the sun has been formed, or that the planets 
are retained in their orbits by the power of gravity, 
merely because we do not comprehend either the one or 

* Josh. v. 13—15. f Exod. iii. 5. 

| Josh. x. 12, &c. § 2 Kings xx. 9. 

|| But why may not the learned Bryant's translation of the pas- 
sage be admitted, which appears to solve every difficulty ? F. W. 



( 21 ) 



the other. The reference to the book of Jasher *, if it 
does not to the Deist's conviction prove the fact, proves 
that the author of the book of Joshua believed the fact, 
and that the people of Israel admitted the authority of 
the work referred to. Otherwise, the insult to the rea- 
der's understanding would have been the same, as if 
Rapin had appealed to the Arabian Nights' Entertain- 
ments in proof of the Battle of Hastings. 

As to the objection of the Deist founded upon Josh, 
viii. 28. And Joshua burnt Ai, and made it a heap for 
ever, even a desolation unto this day ; it seems to have 
little weight. Joshua lived twenty-four years after that 
event. And why might not any one, who had seen the 
heads of the Rebels in 1745, when they were first stuck 
upon poles at Temple-Bar, justly affirm twenty years 
afterward in speaking of the fact, as a proof of his vera- 
city, " And they are there to this very day +." 

After stating the terms of the solemn covenant made 
at Shechem between Joshua on the part of the Lord and 
all the tribes of Israel on their own part, it is added ; 
And Joshua wrote these words in the Booh of the Law of 
God I. This proves, first, that a few years after the 
death of Moses there was such a book (undoubtedly the 
same, which Moses wrote and delivered unto the priests, 
the sons of Levi §) and, secondly, that Joshua wrote a 
part at least of his own transactions in that very book, 
as an addition to it* Surely, this renders it in the highest 
degree probable, that he recorded other material trans- 
actions ; and that such as happened after his death have 
been inserted by subsequent writers, in order to render 
the history more complete. 

The quotation of Joshua vi. 26. made in 1 Kings xvi. 
34. proves, that the book of Joshua is older than the 
first book of Kings ; and, if it does not actually prove, 
furnishes the strongest reason to infer, that Joshua wrote 
down the words which the Lord had spoken. 

* Josh. x. 13. 

f For similar modes of expression, used after the lapse of short 
intervals, see Deut. xi. 4. Matt, xxvii. 8. xxviit. 15. 
t Josh. xxiv. 26. 
§ Deut. xxxi. 9. 



( 22 ) 

Without noticing the Deist's wretched comments 
on the book of Judges, it is necessary to animadvert 
upon his censure of the book of Ruth; as ' an idle 
bungliug story foolishly told, nobody knows by whom, 
about a strolling country girl,' &c. &c. * pretty stuff, 
indeed (he adds) to be called, the Word of God !' If he 
could bring himself to think with St. Austin, and many 
learned and good men since the time of St. Austin, that 
is those men, to whom the Holy Ghost revealed what 
ought to be received as authoritative in religion, might 
write some things as men with historical diligence, and 
other things as prophets by divine inspiration" — he 
would see cause, generally, to consider chronological, 
geographical, and genealogical errors (even when sub- 
stantiated) with occasional repetitions, and slight his- 
torical contradictions, as absolutely undeserving of at- 
tention. He might not be allowed to aspire to the cha- 
racter of an orthodox believer, but he would not be an 
unbeliever, in the divine authority of the Bible, though 
he should admit human mistakes and human opinions to 
exist in some parts of it. This would be the first step 
toward the removal of the doubts of many sceptics : and 
when thus far advanced, the grace of God, assisting a 
teachable disposition and a pious intention, might carry 
them on to perfection. 

With respect to Ruth in particular, she was not what 
the Deist represents her to be. The occasional difficulties 
of this country have driven many men with their fami- 
lies to America. If ten years hence a woman like 
Naomi, having lost her husband and her children, should 
return to England with an affectionate daughter-in-law, 
would any one be justified in calling that daughter-in- 
law a * strolling country girl ?' Would her history in- 
deed, if she had been the unprincipled person thus 
described, have been recorded with implied commenda- 
tion by any one professing to write a religious book ? 
From that book we farther learn that, as a person im- 
ploring protection, she lay down at the foot of her aged 
kinsman's bed, to whom she was subsequently married, 
and that she was reputed by all her neighbours vir- 



( 23 ) 



tuous *. Whoever reads the book of Ruth, bearing in 
mind the simplicity of ancient manners, will find it an 
interesting story of a poor young woman in a strange 
land following the advice, and attachiug herself to the 
fortunes, of the mother of her deceased husband. 

With regard to the two Woks of Samuel, it is gene- 
rally admitted, though the Deist appears to be ignorant 
of this, that Samuel did not write any part of the second, 
and only a part of the first of them. I suppose (says 
the wise and good Dr. Hartley, who was a firm believer 
in Revealed Religion) that the Pentateuch consists of 
the writings of Moses put together by Samuel, with a 
very few additions : that the books of Joshua and Judges 
were in like manner collected, and the book of Ruth 
with the first part of the first book of Samuel written by 
him: that the latter part of that book, and the whole 
of the second, were written by the Prophets who suc- 
ceeded him, suppose Nathan and Gad : that the books 
of Kings and Chronicles are extracts from the records of 
the subsequent Prophets concerning their own times, 
and from the public genealogical tables, made by Ezra: 
that the books of Ezra and Nehemiah are collections of 
like records, some written by Ezra and Nehemiah, and 
some by their predecessors : that the book of Esther 
was written by some eminent Jew, in or near the times 
of the transactiens there recorded, perhaps Mordecai ; 
and the book of Job by a Jew, of an uncertain time; 
the Psalms by David, and other pious persons ; the 
books of Proverbs and Canticles, by Solomon, &c. &c. + 

* The two books of Kings,* the Deist asserts, 1 are 
little more than a history of assassinations, treachery, and 
wars.' And, undoubtedly, many of the Kings of Israel 
and Judah were very wicked persons. But their wick- 
edness did not spring out of their religion : uor were 
the Israelites chosen to be the people of God, because 

* Ruth iii. 11. 

f Observations on Man. Compare 1 Chron. xxix. °29. c 2 Chron. 
ix. 29. xii. 15. xx. 34. ; and say whether it be possible for writers 
tc give a stronger evidence of their veracity, than by referring their 
readers to the books, from which they had extracted the materials of 
their history. 



( 24 ) 

they were wicked ; or wicked, because they were cho- 
sen. The Deist, however, deems the flattering appella- 
tion of * God's chosen people' a lie, which * the priests 
and leaders of the Jews invented to cover the baseness 
of their own characters, and which Christian priests 
(sometimes as corrupt, and often as cruel) have pro- 
fessed to believe!' Now the maker of a watch, or the 
builder of a ship, is not to be blamed, because a spec- 
tator cannot discover either the beauty or the use of 
disjointed parts. Exactly in the same manner may we 
reason concerning the acts of God's special providence. 
If we consider any one act, such as that of selecting the 
Jews, unconnected with every other act, it may excite 
doubts concerning his wisdom or his benignity. But if 
we connect the history of the Jews with that of other 
nations, from the most remote antiquity to the present 
time, we shall discover that they were selected for the 
general good of mankind ; being as a beacon upon the top 
of a mountain, to warn them from idolatry, and light 
them to the sanctuary of the true God. 

Because the drying up of Jeroboam's hand, the ascent 
of Elijah into heaven, the destruction of the children 
who mocked Elisha, and the revival of a dead man * 
(which are all recorded in the book of Kings) are uot men- 
tioned in the book of Chronicles, the Deist disbelieves 
them all. But surely it is a very erroneous mode of reason- 
ing, from the silence of one author concerning a parti- 
cular event to infer the want of veracity in another, by 
whom it is related ; particularly in the present case, 
since the Chronicles (as was before observed) are only 
a supplement, or an abridgement, of preceding works. 
And what will the Deist say to the prophecy delivered 
at the very time of the drying up of Jeroboam's hand 
(975 years before Christ) about the overturning of his 
idolatrous altar, 1 Kings xiii. 2. j when upon consult- 
ing 2 Kings xxiii. 15, 1 6. which refers to facts occurring 
350 years after the delivery of that prophecy, he finds 
that it was fulfilled in all it's parts ? 

As to his elaborate calculation of the date of the book 



# 1 Kings xiii. 4. 2 Kings ii. 11. 24. xiii. 21. 



( 25 ) 

of Genesis, founded upon the account of the Kings of 
Edom, inserted in Gen. xxxvi. 31 — 39 \( which has, in- 
deed, already been answered) his argument, properly 
stated, stands thus : — * A few verses in the book of Gene- 
sis could not have been written by Moses ; therefore, 
no part of that book could be written by him !' A 
child would deny his * therefore/ Again: — 4 A few 
verses in the book of Genesis could not have been written 
by Moses, because they speak of kings in Israel ; there- 
fore, they could not be written by Samuel, or Solomon, 
or any one who lived after there were kings in Israel, 
except by the author of the book of Chronicles !' 
Lastly : — * A few verses in the book of Genesis are, word 
for word, the same with a few verses in the book of 
Chronicles; therefore, the author of the former must 
have taken them from the latter i* And why not the 
author of the latter from the former, as he has also taken 
many other genealogies, supposing them to have been 
inserted by Samuel? Such are his H lame and impotent 
conclusions !" 



V. 

At length the Deist comes to two books, Ezra and 
Nehemiah, which he allows to be genuine, giving an 
account of the return of the Jews from the Babylonian 
Captivity about 536 years before Christ : and yet these 
books, he asserts, are * nothing to us!' The very first 
verse of Ezra says, The prophecy of Jeremiah was fulfilled. 
Is it ? nothing to us' to know, that Jeremiah was a per- 
son, to whom the Supreme Being had communicated a 
knowledge of future events ? Is it * nothing to us* to 
know, that upward of five hundred years before Christ 
the books of Chronicles, Kings, Judges, Joshua, Deute- 
ronomy, Numbers, Leviticus, Exodus, and Genesis are 
all referred to by Ezra and Nehemiah as containing au- 
thentic accounts of the Israelites from Abraham down- 
ward ? Is it * nothing to us/ in short, to know that we 
have a true history of that nation, to whom pertaineth the 
adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving 
of the Law, and the service of God, and the promises ; 



( 26 ) 



whose are the fathers, and of whom ( as concerning the 
flesh ) Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever * ? 
Instead of deeming the Old Testament, with the Deist, 
a ' collection of lies and blasphemies,' it may on the 
other hand from it's internal evidence, as well as from 
the confirmation which is given to it by the most ancient 
profane historians and by the present circumstances of 
the world, be pronounced the oldest, the truest, the most 
comprehensive, and the most important of histories. It 
supplies more satisfactory proofs of the being and attri- 
butes of God, and of the origin and the end of human 
kind, than were ever attained by the deepest researches 
of the most enlightened philosophers. 

That the author of the book of Ezra however, though 
admitted to be genuine, may not escape without a blow, 
the Deist by a petty parade of arithmetical skill affects to 
show, that the total amount of the Jews who returned 
from Babylon does not correspond with the particulars : 
as if Ezra, a man of eminent learning, could not hae 
added together forty or fifty small numbers + ! Is he 
ignorant, that the Hebrews denoted numbers by letters ; 
and that, from the great similarity of several of the 
letters to each other, it was extremely easy for the tran- 
scriber of a manuscript to mistake a a for a 3 (2 for 20), 
a J for a J (3 for 50), a 1 for a 1 (4 for 200), &c. ? 

Upon the subject of an evil being, who under the 
name ' Satan/ the Deist falsely asserts, is * only once 
mentioned in the Bible, and that in the book of Job J,* 
it may be remarked that the belief of such a being has 
prevailed universally. Hence the Egyptian Typho and 
Osiris, the Fersian Arimanius and Oromasdes, the 
Celestial and Infernal Jove of the Greeks, &c. tvhich 
apparently can only have arisen from a tradition of the 
fall of our first parents; disfigured, indeed, and obscured 
(as all traditions must be) by many fabulous additions. 

* Rom. ix. 4, 5. 
t Ezra ii. 3—64. 

% Job. i. 6. But see 2 Sam. xix. 22. 1 Kings v. 4, where the word 
rendered ' adversary' is in the original, Satan. Indeed, it seems pro- 
bable that this root was introduced into the Hebrew and other Eas- 
tern languages, to denote * an adversary,' from it's having been the 
proper name of the great enemy of mankind. 



( 27 ) 



' The Jews,' according to the Deist, ' never prayed, 
but when they were in trouble !' Like all other men, 
they probably prayed most fervently under such circum- 
stances. And * they never prayed for any thing,' he 
adds, * but for victory, vengeance, or riches.' Let him 
read Solomon's prayer * at the dedication of the Temple, 
and blush for his uncharitable assertion ! 

The Deist says, * It does not follow that the heathens 
worshipped the statues and images, which they set up.' 
Not worshipped them! What does he think of Nebu- 
chadnezzar's Golden Image ; of the Statue of the Mother 
of the Gods fetched by a decree of the Roman Senate 
from Pessinus, or of the image (of the great goddess 
Diana ) which fell down from Jupiter t Not worshipped 
them! The worship was universal +. 

* It is an error,' the Deist proceeds, * to call the 
Psalms the Psalms of David.' This, as we have seen 
above (in the extract from Hartley) is no new discovery. 
It is admitted. If, however, he will have them to be * a 
collection from different song-writers/ he must allow, 
from the spirit by which their writers were inspired, that 
in matter as well as manner they greatly excel every 
other collection. Let him compare it with the Odes of 
Horace or Anacreon, the Hymns of Callimachus, or the 
Choruses of the Greek Tragedies (no contemptible com- 
positions, any of these) ; and he will quickly see how 
greatly in piety of sentiment, in sublimity of expression, 
in purity of morality, and in rational theology it sur- 
passes them all. 

In one who esteems the Psalms of David a * song- 
book,' it is quite consistent to esteem the Proverbs of 
Solomon a ' jest-book.' What a pity that, instead of 
eight hundred of these jests, we had not the whole three 
thousand ! Our mirth would, surely, be extreme. Let 
us take the very first of them, as a specimen of their 
jocoseness : — The fear of the Lord is the beginning of 
knowledge. Is there any jest in this ? What Lord does 
Solomon mean? He means that Lord, who took the 
posterity of Abraham to be his peculiar people, redeem- 
ed them by a series of miracles from Egyptian bondage, 



* 1 Kings viii. 23—53. 



f 2 Kings xvii. 30, 31. 



( 28 ) 

gave them the Law by the hands of Moses, and com- 
manded them to exterminate the nations of Canaan; the 
Lord, whom the Deist rejects. The jest proceeds to 
say, that in so doing he despises wisdom and instruction. 
Again : — My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and 
forsake not the law of thy mother. He, whose heart has 
ever been touched by parental feelings, will see no jest 
in this. Once more : — My son, if sinners entice thee, 
consent thou not *. These are the three first proverbs 
in Solomon's ' jest-book the perusal of which, if it 
does not make the reader merry, is singularly adapted to 
make him wise. As to Solomon's sins, we have nothing to 
do with them, but to avoid them ; and to give full credit 
to his experience, when he preaches to us his admirable 
sermon on the vanity of every thing except piety and 
virtue. 

Isaiah is abused by the Deist beyond any other book 
in the Old Testament, because his prophecies have re- 
ceived such a circumstantial completion, that unless he 
can persuade himself to consider them as \ one continued 
incoherent bombastical rant, without application and 
destitute of meaning/ he must necessarily allow their 
divine authority. He compares the Burthen of Babylon, 
the Burthen of Moab, &c. \ denouncing vengeance 
against cities and kingdoms, to the story of the Burning 
Mountain, the story of Cinderilla, &c. The subjects of 
the latter, which amuse the child, vanish out of the 
mind of the man. But whoever carefully reads Isaiah's 
Burthen of Babylon, and accurately compares it with the 
subsequent state of that empire, must receive an impres- 
sion never to be effaced from his memory. That Being 
alone, by whom things future are more distinctly known 
than past or present things are by man, could have dic- 
tated to the prophet the Burthen of Babylon. 

The Deist next asserts, that * the latter part of the 
forty-fourth chapter and the beginning of the forty-fifth 
are an imposition practised upon the world by the auda- 
city of church and priestly ignorance ; being a compli- 
ment to Cyrus, who permitted the Jews to return to 
Jerusalem from the Babylonian Captivity at least a hun- 



* Prov. i. 7, 10. f Isai. x'm. I. xv. 1, &c. 



( 29 ) 

dred and fifty years after the death of Isaiah.' Por- 
phyry made a similar assertion respecting Daniel's pro- 
phecies, and Voltaire on the prediction of Jesus relative 
to the destruction of Jerusalem, because they saw no 
other means of evading the force of their evidence. But 
proof, proof is what we require, and not assertion, before 
we will give up our Bibles. Of this passage at least the 
4 application' is circumstantial, and the * meaning' 
obvious ; and in farther evidence of the absurdity of the 
Deist's hypothesis, let him be told that Cyrus, as a Per- 
sian, was most probably addicted to the Magian super- 
stition of two independent Beings, one the author of 
light and all good, the other of darkness and all evil. 
Would a captive Jew, meaning to compliment the 
greatest sovereign in the world, be so stupid as to tell 
him, that his religion was a lie ? I am the Lord, and 
there is none else. I form the light, and create darkness: 
I make peace, and create evil : I, the Lord, do all these 
things *. 

But let him peruse the Burthen of Babylon. Was 
that, also, written after the event ? Was Babylon then 
uninhabited ? Was it then fit neither for the Arabian's 
tent, nor for the shepherd's fold f ? Was it then a pos' 
session for the bittern, and pools of water J ? 

Above all, however, the Deist is to be blamed for 
attempting to lessen the authority of the Bible by ridi- 
cule, rather than by reason ; for bringing forward every 
trite and petty objection, without any notice of the replies 
which they have repeatedly received, and urging them as 
if they were both new and unanswerable. An honest 
man, on the other hand, sincere in his endeavours 
to search out truth, would in reading the Bible — first, 
examine whether it ascribed to the Supreme Being 
any attributes repugnant to holiness, truth, goodness, or 
justice. Finding in it nothing of this kind, he would 
next consider that, being a very ancient book written by 
various authors at different and distant periods, it would 
probably contain some difficulties and apparent contra- 
dictions in it's historical parts. These he would endea- 
vour to remove by the rules of such sound criticism, as 



* Isai. xlv. 6, 7. f Isai. xiii. 20. f Isai. xiv, 23. 



< 30 ) 

he would employ upon any other book : and if he dis- 
covered that most of them were of a trifling nature, 
arising from short supplemental or explanatory inser- 
tions, or from the mistakes of transcribers, he would 
infer that the rest were presumptively of a similar 
description, though he might not perhaps be equally 
able to account for them all; especially, as he would 
remark throughout the whole book a degree of harmony 
and connexion utterly inconsistent with every idea of 
deceit. He would, thirdly, observe that it's miraculous 
and historical facts were so inseparably intermixed, that 
they must either both be true, or both false ; and per- 
ceiving that the historical parts were better authenticated 
than any other history, he would also readily believe 
the miraculous parts. In order to confirm himself in 
this belief, he would advert to the prophecies ; well 
knowing, that the prediction of things to come is as cer- 
tain a proof of divine interposition as the performance 
of a miracle can be. And discovering that many pro- 
phecies had actually been fulfilled in all their minutest 
circumstances, and that some were apparently fulfilling 
at this very day, he would not suffer a few seeming or 
real difficulties to overbalance the weight of this accu- 
mulated testimony of the truth of the Bible. Such 
would be the natural conduct of a person solicitous to 
form an impartial judgment on the subject of Revealed 
Religion. But to return. 

In answer to the Deist's poor remark, that Isaiah's 
stile is * what is properly called prose run mad,' let him 
hear the learned Bishop Lowth, who says that " a poem 
translated literally from the Hebrew will still retain, 
even as far as relates to metre, much of it's native dignity 
and a faint appearance of versification." 

His gross comment on the passage, Behold, a virgin 
shall conceive and bear a son *, intended to prove that 
Isaiah was * a lying prophet and an impostor,' proves the 
direct contrary. Rezin, King of Syria, and Pekah, King 
of Israel, made war upon Ahaz, King of Judah, with the 
declared purpose of placing another family on his throne. 
The above sign was to assure Ahaz, that this purpose 



* Isai. vii. 14. 



( 31 ) 

should not come to pass. The Deist affirms, however, 
that it did come to pass ; that Ahaz was ' destroyed/ 
and that * two hundred thousand women, sons, and daugh- 
ters, were carried into captivity.' Both these assertions 
are falsehoods : Ahaz was not ' destroyed and the two 
hundred thousand persons, though made captives, were 
not 1 carried into captivity.' For the chief men of Sa- 
maria rose up, and took the captives, and brought them to 
Jericho, the city of pa,.,i-trees, to their brethren *. The 
kings (as it had been predicted) failed in their attempt 
to destroy the House of David, and to make a revolution. 
They made no revolution : they did not destroy the 
House of David : for Ahaz slept with his fathers, and He- 
zekiah his son reigned in his stead +. 

VI. 

The Deist now passes on to Jeremiah, His objection, 
that the book is in * the most confused and disordered 
condition,' no more affects it's genuineness or it's authen- 
ticity, than the blunder of a bookbinder in misplacing 
the sheets of a volume would lessen it's authority. Whe- 
ther the prophecies were originally ill arranged by Ba- 
ruch, or have been misplaced since by accident or the 
carelessness of transcribers, or whether they constitu- 
tionally differ from history in not being subject to an 
accurate observance of time and order, is a matter of 
little moment. But the charges of duplicity and false 
prediction are of greater importance. 
And, first, as to the duplicity. 

Jeremiah J, on account of his having boldly predicted 
the destruction of Jerusalem, had been thrust into a miry 
dungeon by the princes of Judah, who sought his life. 
The king however ordered him to be taken up out of it, 
sent for him to a private conference, in which he learned 
from him the purpose of God respecting Jerusalem ; and 
directed him, if the princes should require him to dis- 
close what had passed between them, to reply ; " Ipre- 
sented my supplication before the King, that he would not 

* t Cluon. xxviii. 15. f Ibid, 27. % Jer. xxxriii. 



( 32 ) 



cause me to return to Jonathan's house to die there.' 9 
* Thus,* the Deist asserts, 1 this man of God (as he is 
called) could tell a lie, or very strongly prevaricate: 
for, certainly, he did not go to Zedekiah to make his 
supplication ; neither did he make it/ Now it is not 
said, that he told the princes 1 he went to make his sup- 
plication,' but that he made it ; and, as it is said in the 
preceding chapter that he did make it on a former occa- 
sion, is it improbable that in this conference he renewed 
it ? At all events, Jeremiah did not violate any law of 
nature, or of civil society, in what he did. He told the 
truth only in part, to save his life ; and he was under 
no obligation to his enemies to tell them the whole. 
The King of England cannot justly require a privy-coun- 
sellor to tell a lie for him : but he may justly require 
him not to divulge his councils to those, who have no 
right to know them. 

Now for the false prediction. 

In Jeremiah xxxiv. 2 — 5, it is prophesied ; Thus saith 
the Lord, " Behold, I will give this city into the hands of 
the King of "Bah Ion, and he shall burn it with fire : and 
thou shalt not escape out of his hand, but shalt surely be 
taken, and delivered into his hand ; and thine eyes shall 
behold the eyes of the King of Babylon, and he shall speak 
with thee mouth to mouth, and thou shalt go to Babylon, 
Yet thou shalt not die by the sword : but thou shalt die in 
peace, and with the burnings of thy fathers, the former 
kings which were before thee, so shall they burn odours for 
thee. * Now, instead of all this, we are told'(exclairns the 
Deist) that the King of Babylon put out the eyes of Zede- 
kiah, and bound him in chains, and carried him to Babylon, 
and put him in prison till the day of his death * / What 
can he then pronounce, he adds, of 1 these prophets, but 
that they are impostors and liars ?' It might be deemed 
extremely improbable that the same writer should, in 
the short course of a few pages, record what he wished to 
be deemed a prediction, and a fact absolutely falsifying 
that prediction. But setting aside this consideration, we 
find that the prophecy was actually fulfilled in all it's 
parts. What then shall we pronounce of those, who call 



* Jer. lii. 11. 



( 33 ) 

Jeremiah an ' impostor and a liar ?' Hear the history,, 
They burnt all the palaces of Jerusalem with Jire * .* and 
they took the king, and brought him up to the king of Baby- 
lon to Riblah \ : and he gavej dgement upon him (or, more 
literally, * spake judgement with him') at Riblah, and put 
him in prison till the d ty of hi death There he died 
peaceably, not by the sword: and presumptively Daniel 
and the other Jews, who were men of great authority at 
the court of Babylon, would obtain permission to bury 
their deceased prince with the burr'ngs of his fathers ; or 
the king of Babylon himself, revering royalty even in it's 
ruins, might order the Jews to inter and lament him after 
the manner of their country. 

So much for the Deist's * particularity in treating of 
the books ascribed to Isaiah and Jeremiah/ He parti- 
cularises two or three passages, which have been proved 
to be not justly liable to his censure : and he omits every 
^evidence of their probity and the intrepidity of their 
writers, and every instance of sublime composition and 
(what is of far more consequence) of prophetical vera- 
city ! 

Proceeding to the rest of the prophets, whom he takes 
collectively, he in the very outset confounds prophets 
with poets and musicians ; and asserts, that ' the flights 
and metaphors of the Jewish poets have been foolishly 
erected into what are now called prophecies.' 

That there were false prophets, witches, or fortune- 
tellers, &c. among the Jews, no person will attempt to 
deny. No nation has been without them. But when 
the Bible. prophets are represented as ' strollers spending 
their lives in casting nativities, predicting riches, conjur- 
ing for lost goods, &c. their office and character are 
wholly misrepresented. Their office was, to convey to 
the children of Israel the commands, the promises, and 
the threatenings of God : their character, that of men 
bravely sustaining the bitterest persecutions in the dis- 
charge of it. False prophets, indeed, are reprobated in 
many parts of Scripture §. But what is the chaff to the 
wheat? what are the false prophets to the true ones? 

* 2 Chron. xxxvi. 19. f 1 Kings xxv. 5, 6. 

X Jcr, Hi. 11. % See particularly, Jer. xxiii. 9—32. 

c 



( 34 ) 



Every thing good is liable to abuse. Who argues against 
a physician, because there are pretenders to physic ? 
Was Isaiah * a fortune-teller predicting riches,' when he 
said to king Hezekiah ; " Behold, the days come, that 
nothing shall be lejt to thee, and thy sons shall be eunuchs 
in the palace of the king of Babylon * V This prophecy 
was delivered in the year before Christ 713 : and above 
a hundred years afterward it was accomplished, when 
Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem, and carried away the 
treasures of the king's house + ; and when he commanded 
the master of his eunuchs, to bring certain of the king y s 
seed, and nourish them three years, that at the end thereof 
they might stand before the king %• 

When Jehorarn the idolatrous king of Israel, on the 
march with his allies and their armies, was distressed for 
want of water, and waited upon Elisha ; he, with a cou- 
rageous respect for the dignity of his character and the 
sacredness of his office (and not, as the Deist asserts, like 
4 a party-prophet, full of venom and vulgarity') said to 
Jehorarn, " Get thee to the prophets of thy father a?id to 
the prophets of thy mother §. Regarding how r ever the 
presence of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, by whose advice he 
had been consulted, he ordered them to make the valley full 
of ditches : not for the common purpose of ' getting 
water, by digging for it but to hold the water when it 
should miraculously come without wind or rain from 
another country, as it did come by the way of Edom. 

As to Elisha's cursing the little children who had 
mocked him, and their consequent destruction — they 
had insulted him, probably, not as a man but as a pro- 
phet ; and the Hebrew word translated ( child,' it should 
be remembered, is applied to grown-up youths. Be this 
as it may, had the cursing been a sin, it would not have 
been followed by the miraculous death of the persons 
cursed : for God best knows, who deserve punishment ; 
and such a judgement, it may be concluded, would not 
be inflicted without a salutary effect on the idolatrous 
witnesses of it. 

By admitting the genuineness of the books of Ezekiel 
and Daniel, who lived during the Babylonian Captivity, 

* Isai. xxxix. 6, 7. + 2 Kings xxiv. 13. 

£ Dan. i. 3. § '2 Kin^s iii. 



( 35 ) 

the Deist appears to cut up the very root of his whole 
performance. For how can any intelligent man, after 
such a concession, if he reads the book of Daniel in par- 
ticular with impartiality, refuse his assent to the truth of 
Christianity ? In vain he may assert, that the interpre- 
tations and applications, which commentators and priests 
have made of these books, only show the fraud or the 
extreme folly to which credulity or priestcraft can go ! 
The scientific Ferguson, who was neither a commentator 
nor a priest, in his Tract upon the 1 Year of our Saviour's 
Crucifixion,' concludes his dissertation on the ninth 
chapter of Daniel by saying; " Thus we have an astro- 
nomical demonstration of the truth of this ancient pro- 
phecy." Dispassionately studied, indeed, it is adapted 
to make every body become Christians. 

The Deist's strange hypothesis — that Ezekiel and Da- 
niel only ' pretended to have dreamed dreams and to 
have seen visions, by way of carrying on a disguised cor- 
respondence* relative to the rescuing of their country 
from the Babylonian yoke ! — is wild and extravagant 
almost beyond belief ; as is likewise his subsequent con- 
jecture, that Jonah was * a fable written by some Gentile 
to expose the nonsense, and satirise the vicious and 
malignant character, of a Bible-prophet or a predicting 
priest.' 

He next quotes from Ezekiel * a passage respecting 
Egypt, in which it is said, No foot of man or of beast shall 
pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited forty years; 
and broadly, and briefly, asserts it to be 4 false.' Now 
we know too little of the history of Egypt, at that remote 
period, to be able to prove that it was not false. Per- 
haps only a part of Egypt is here spoken of : and, if not, 
a literal accomplishment of hyperbolical expressions 
denoting great desolation is hardly to be expected. 
But we are told by Megasthenes and Berosus, two hea- 
then historians who lived about three hundred years 
before Christ, that * Nebuchadnezzar conquered the 
greater part of Africa' and * took captives in Egypt,' 
which appears to imply the fulfilment of the prediction. 
At any rate, had the Deist looked four verses onward, he 
would have there found a prophecy (relative to the same 
* Ezek. xxix, 11. 
C 2 



( 36 ) 



country) delivered above two thousand years ago, which 
has been receiving it's completion from that time to 
this : Egypt shall be the basest of the kingdoms, &c *. 
This the Deist may, if he pleases, call ' a dream, a vi- 
sion, or a lie but, surely, it is a wonderful prophecy ; 
for Egypt has been successiveh 7 the prey of the Babylo- 
nians, the Persians, the Macedonians, the Romans, the 
Saracens, the Mamelucs, and the Turks. Another 
prediction also, concerning kincr Zedekiah, may here be 
adduced : — I will bring him to Babylon ; yet shall he not 
see it, though he shall die there f . What! not see Baby- 
lon, though he should die there ! How, again, is this 
consistent with what Jeremiah had foretold, that he 
should see the eyes of the king of Babylon % ? Tbis appa- 
rent contradiction induced Zedekiah, as Josephus informs 
us, to give no credit to either of the prophets : and yet 
he, unhappily, experienced the truth of both. He saw 
the eyes of the king of Babylon, not at Babylon, but at 
Riblah : his eyes were there put out ; and he was car- 
ried to Babylon, yet he saw it not. 

And thus the Deist imagines, that be has demolished, 
and for ever, the authority of the Old Testament : a 
book, which Sir Isaac Newton esteemed the most authen- 
tic of all histories; which, by it's celestial light, illumines 
the darkest ages of antiquity ; which is the touchstone 
enabling us to distinguish between the God of Israel, 
holy and just and good, and the impure rabble of hea- 
then deities ; which has been thought, by competent 
judges, to have afforded matter for the laws of Solon, 
and a foundation for the philosophy of Plato ; which 
has been illustrated by the labour of learning, in all 
ages and countries ; and admired and venerated for it's 
sublimity, it's piety, and it's verachy by all who were 
able to read and to understand it §. He has ' gone in- 
deed through the wood/ as he says, and with the fullest 
intention to cut it down : but he has only pointed out a 

* Ezek. xxix. 15. 
+ Ibid. xii. 15. 
J Jer. xxxiv. 3. 

§ I cannot forbear adding, in a note, the deliberate judgement of 
the late Sir William Jones, one of the profoundest of Eastern scholars 
as well as one of the most excellent of men, who was as incapable of 



( 37 ) 



few unsightly shrubs, he has entangled himself in thickets 
of thorns and briers, and has lost his way on the moun- 
tains of Lebanon ; the goodly cedar-trees whereof scorn 
the blunt edge and the base temper of his axe, and laugh 
unhurt at the feebleness of his stroke. Ridiculing things 
held most sacred, and calumniating characters esteemed 
most venerable, in order to excite the scoffs of the pro- 
fane, increase the scepticism of the doubtful, shake the 
faith of the unlearned, suggest cavils to the disputers of 
this world, and perplex the minds of honest men seeking 
to worship the God of their fathers in sincerity and 
truth ; hollas not so much as glanced at the great design 
of the whole volume, or the harmony and mutual depen- 
dence of it's several parts. He does not perceive, tha,t 
but for the selected people of God, and the truths deli- 
vered in their Scriptures, he and the whole world would 
have been at this day worshippers of idols. He has 
passed by all the prophecies respecting the Messiah — 
though they absolutely fixed the time both of his coming, 
and of his being cut off ; and described bis office, cha- 
racter, condition, sufferings, and death in the most cir- 
cumstantial manner, several hundred years before the 
events themselves actually took place in the person 
of Jesus of Nazareth : and he has totally neglected 
noticing the testimony of the whole Jewish nation to the 
truth both of the natural and the miraculous facts re- 
corded in the Old Testament! 

affirming what he did not fully believe, as of suppressing what he 
did : — " I, who cannot help believing the divinity of the Messiah, 
from the undisputed antiquity and manifest completion of many 
prophecies (especially, of those of Isaiah) in the only person recorded 
by history to whom they are applicable, am obliged of course to 
believe the sanctity of the venerable books, to which that sacred 
person refers as genuine. But it is not the truth of our national 
religion, as such, that I have at heart : it is truth itself.'' And 
again : — " I have carefully and regularly perused these Holy Scrip- 
tures (N. B. This was written in his own copy of the liible) ; and am 
of opinion that the volume, independently of it's divine origin, con- 
tains more sublimity, purer morality, more important history, and 
finer strains of eloquence, than can be collected from all other books, 
in whatever language they may have been written." (Life by Lord 
Teignmouth, II. 236, 245. 8vo. edit.) In a Discourse likewise, ad- 
dressed to the Asiatic Society in 1791, he declares his firm belief, that 
" the prophecies were genuine compositions, and having been ful- 
filled, were consequently inspired." F. W. 



( 38 ) 



THE NEW TESTAMENT. 



VI. 

* The New Testament, they tell us (asserts the 
Deist) is founded upon the prophecies of the Old : and 
if so, it must follow the fate of it's foundation I* Un- 
doubtedly, the fate of the two is inseparably linked toge- 
ther ; though the New is not founded solely on the pro- 
phecies of the Old. Our Saviour, indeed, refers the 
Jews to Moses who wrote, and the Scriptures which testi- 
fied of him ; but he also adds, Though ye believe not me, 
believe the works *. Hence it appears, that the verifica- 
tion of his mission, even to the Jews, did not rest ex- 
clusively on the truth of the prophecies of the Old Tes- 
tament : so that, if some of those prophecies could even 
be proved to have been misapplied by commentators, 
Christianity would not thereby be overturned. 

* The mere existence of such a woman as Mary, and 
such men as Joseph and Jesus,' the Deist says, ' is a 
matter of indifference.' He condescends, however, to 
think it probable that ' there were such persons and 
only ' contends against the fable of Jesus Christ, as told 
in the New Testament, and the wild and visionary doc- 
trine raised thereon.' He does not then repute it 'a 
fable,' that Jesus Christ lived upwards of 1800 years ago 
in Judaea, where he went about doing good, constantly 
attended by several disciples ; who, a few years after he 
had been put to death by Pontius Pilate, became nume- 
rous not only in that country, but throughout the whole 
Roman empire : that a particular day has been observed 
by them ever since in a religious manner, in commemo- 
ration of his real or supposed resurrection; and that the 
constant celebration of Baptism and the Lord's Supper 
may from the present time be traced back to him, as the 
author of both these institutions. Now, if these things 
be admitted to be fact, they involve so many other parts 



* John v. 46. 39. x. 38. 



( 39 ) 



of the New Testament, that but scanty materials are left 
for the Deist's * fable.' 

The miraculous conception, however, he pronounces a 
fable f blasphemously obscene.' Impure must that ima- 
gination be, which can discover any obscenity in the 
Angel's declaration to Mary ; the power of the Highest 
shall overshadow thee *. As well might he find it in Ge- 
nesis, where it is said, The Spirit of God moved upon the 
face of the waters t. 

And now he comes to * a position, which (he says) 
cannot be controverted : namely, first, that the agree- 
ment of all the parts of a story does not prove that story 
to be true, because the parts may agree and the whole 
may be false ; and, secondly, the disagreement of the 
parts of a story proves that the whole — i. e. of course, the 
pith and marrow of the story — cannot be true.' Yet, 
surely, it is scarcely possible for even two persons (for 
instance, Sir John Hawkins and Mr. Boswell, in their 
Lives of Dr. Johnson) and the difficulty is increased, if 
there are more than two — to draw up the biography of 
any one of their acquaintance without considerable dif- 
ferences as to the existence and succession of it's several 
incidents. But these differences, in minute circum- 
stances, will not invalidate their testimony as to all mate- 
rial transactions ; much less will they render the whole 
of their narratives ' a fable.' If several independent 
witnesses of fair character should agree in testifying, 
that a murther or a robbery was committed at a precise 
time, in a particular place, and by a certain individual ; 
every court of justice in the world would admit the 
fact, notwithstanding the abstract possibility of the 
whole being false. And again: — If several such wit- 
nesses should agree in affirming, that they saw the King 
of France beheaded, though they might disagree as to 
the figure of the guillotine, or the size of the executioner, 
&c. every court of justice in the world would think, 
that such minute differences did not overturn the evi- 
dence respecting the fact itself. 

This ' incontrovertible' position then, as he terms it, 
the Deist applies to the genealogies of Christ given by 



* Luke i. 35. 



f (Jen. i. 2. 



( 40 ) 

Matthew and Luke. There is a disagreement between 
them, he says : and * if Matthew speaks truth, Luke 
speaks falsehood ; if Luke speak truth, Matthew speaks 
falsehood and therefore, it seems, neither of them is 
* entitled to be believed in any thing he says afterward I 
Here both the premises, and the conclusion, are inad- 
missible : the conclusion — because two authors, who hap- 
pen to differ in tracing back the pedigree of an individual 
for above a thousand years, cannot therefore be justly 
deemed incompetent to bear testimony to the transac- 
tions of his life, unless an intention to falsify can be 
proved against them : the premises-— because Matthew 
speaks truth, and Luke speaks truth, though they do not 
speak the same truth ; Matthew giving the genealogy of 
Joseph the reputed father of Jesus, and Luke that of 
Mary his real mother. If, indeed, either of them had 
fabricated the genealogy in question, he must have been 
conscious, from knowing the care with which the public 
registers were preserved among the Jews, that he would 
necessarily have been exposed to immediate detection. 

In what the Deist says about ' forty years being 
assigned by Matthew, contrary to all experience, to 
each of twenty-seven successive generations about 
' each being an old bachelor before he married,' &c. 
which he with his usual grossness pronounces 4 not even 
a reasonable lie,' he is totally wrong. By inserting 
from 1 Chron. iii. 11, 12. three generations, through 
whatever mistake omitted in the Evangelist, the average 
age of the fathers at the birth of the sons recorded is 
reduced to thirty-six : and the marriage might have 
preceded the birth of that son by many years ; espe- 
cially, as it is not always the first-born son who succeeds 
his father in the list. David had at least six sons 
grown to manhood, before Solomon was born, and Re- 
hoboam at least three elder than Abia, or Abijah. 

From the mention of some things in one Evangelist, 
which are not mentioned by all or by any of the others, 
the Deist represents the Gospels ' not as written by 
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, but by some uncon- 
nected individuals, each making his own legend.' Even 
if we admit this a single moment for the sake of the 
inference, would it not, by removing every possible sus- 



( 41 ) 

picion of fraud and imposture, very strongly confirm the 
gospel-history ? Had they agreed in nothing, their tes- 
timony ought to have been rejected as a legendary tale : 
had they agreed in every thing, it might have been sur- 
mised that, instead of being unconnected individuals, 
they were a set of associated impostors. 

As an instance of contradiction between the Evange- 
lists, the Deist asserts that ' Matthew says the Angel 
announced the immaculate conception to Joseph ; 
whereas Luke says, he appeared unto Mary.' The truth 
is (and it is so obvious, that only the blind could have 
missed it) he appeared unto both : to Mary, when he 
informed her, that she should by the power of God con- 
ceive a son ; and to Joseph some months afterward, 
when Mary had returned from her long visit to her 
cousin Elizabeth. What follows is too abominably in- 
decent, too blasphemously profane, for any modest 
ear. 

The story of the destruction of the young children by 
the order of Herod, being mentioned only by Matthew, 
is therefore pronounced by the Deist ( a lie.' Are we, 
then, to reject all facts recorded by only one historian ? 
Matthew was writing his gospel for the use of the Jews, 
who must have had a melancholy remembrance of the 
massacre referred to. The Gentiles were less interested 
in it ; though there is reason to believe, from a passage 
in Macrobius *, that it was known at Rome. As to 
what the Deist savs of John, that ' he was under two 
years of age, and stayed behind/ and yet escaped ; it 
cannot be proved that John was at that time in the dis- 
trict to which the edict of Herod was confined, or that 
he had not exceeded the stated limit, which probably 
included only such as had just completed their first year. 
John was, certainly, six months older than Jesus. 

' Not any two of the Evangelists,' the Deist observes, 
f agree in reciting (in exactly the same words) the in- 
scription which, they tell us, was put over Christ when 
he was crucified/ But might not the unessential verbal 
difference have arisen from that inscription being written 
in three languages, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin ; which 



* Saturn. II. 4. 



( 42 ) 

(though all of the same meaning) would probably, when 
the Hebrew and the Latin were translated into Greek, 
involve a verbal difference in the translations ? 

' The only one (he adds) of the men called Apostles, 
who appears to have been near the place of Crucifixion, 
was Peter.' This is not true. We do not know, that 
Peter was present at all at the crucifixion : but we do 
know that John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was ; 
for Jesus spoke to him from the cross. ' And why,' he 
asks, ' should we believe Peter, when he was convicted, 
by their own account, of perjury in swearing that " he 
knew not Jesus ?" ' Why ? Because he sincerely re- 
pented of his wickedness, and suffered martyrdom in 
attestation of the truth of the Christian Religion. 

But the Evangelists disagree also, he asserts, as to the 
time of the crucifixion ; Mark saying it was at the third 
hour (nine in the morning), and John at the sixth, i. e. 
according to the Deist's hypothesis, at twelve at noon. 
Let us only admit however that John, writing his gospel 
in a Roman province of Asia, might have used the Ro- 
man method of computing time, which resembled our 
own, and the alleged contradiction vanishes : as in 
that case the sixth hour, when Jesus (according to 
that writer) was condemned, would be six in the morn- 
ing ; and the intermediate three hours from six to nine, 
when he was crucified, might be employed in making pre- 
parations. 

And here we may notice some very natural incidents 
attending that event, particularly as to those who stood 
by Jesus in his last trying hour ; John the friend of his 
heart, his tender mother whom he consigned to John's 
protection, and those who had gratefully followed him 
through life. Such a conformity of circumstances to 
our probable expectation supplies an argument in favour 
of the truth of the Gospels far outweighiug a parcel of 
paltry objections, which arise perhaps solely out of our 
ignorance of the customs and manners of that remote 
age. 

' The dashing writer of the book of Matthew,' the 
Deist next asserts, is 4 not supported by the writers of 
the other books in his account of the miracles which 
attended the crucifixion — the preternatural darkness, 



( 43 ) 



the rending of the veil of the Temple, the earthquake 
which rent the rocks, and the resurrection of the bodies 
of many saints that slept.' This is not true. Mat- 
thew is supported both by Mark and Luke, with respect 
to the first two ; and those two they probably thought 
abundantly sufficient to convince any person, as they 
convinced the Centurion, that Jesus was the Son of God. 
These two, indeed, were better calculated to produce 
conviction among the persons, for whose information 
Mark and Luke wrote, than the two latter: as the 
earthquake, even if not local, might have been pro- 
nounced by an objector a natural phenomenon ; and 
those, to whom the revived saints appeared, might be 
dead or scattered abroad. But the darkness must have 
been generally known and remembered, and the veil of 
the temple could easily be preserved. John's silence is 
accounted for by the circumstance of his gospel being 
intended as a kind of supplement to the three others. 
One occurrence, however, of great importance he has 
stated with peculiar distinctness, relative to the blood 
and water which flowed through the wound made by the 
soldier's spear. The blood is easily accounted for: 
but whence came the water ? The anatomist tells us, 
' from the pericardium/ So consistent is evangelical 
testimony with the most curious researches of natural 
science. 

Without entering into the Deist's jocose speculation 
upon what Matthew might have told us respecting this 
* army of saints,' as he calls them, suffice it for us to 
believe that all that are in their graves shall hear his voice, 
and shall come forth. If none of these miracles had been 
true, or rather if any of them had been false, what 
motive could Matthew, writing to the Jews, have had for 
trumping up such wonderful stories ? Every reader, 
whom he met, would have told him that he was * a liar 
and an impostor/ Would any writer, who should now 
address to the French nation a History of Louis XVI., 
venture to affirm that, when he was beheaded, there 
was darkness for three hours over all France ; that 
there was an earthquake ; that rocks were split, and 
graves opened, and dead men brought to life, who 
actually appeared to many persens in Paris ? 



( 44 ) 



VIII. 

' The tale of the Resurrection/ the Deist says, 1 follows 
that of the Crucifixion. If these writers had given their 
evidence, with respect to the alibi of the dead body, in 
a court of justice in the same contradictory manner, 
they would have been in danger of having their ears 
cropped for perjury, and would have justly deserved it.' 
On the contrary, the seeming confusion is occasioned by 
the brevity of the accounts, and would have been clear- 
ed up at once, if the witnesses of the resurrection had 
been examined before any judicature whatever. As we 
cannot have this vivd voce examination of them all, let 
us question the Evangelists. 

Q. Did you find the sepulchre of Jesus empty ? 

A. One of us actually saw it empty, and the rest heard 
it was so from eye-witnesses. 

Q. Did you, or any of the followers of Jesus, take 
away the dead body from the sepulchre ? 

All. No. 

Q. Did the soldiers, or the Jews, take it away ? 
All. No. 

Q. How are you certain of that ? 

A, Because we saw the body when it was dead, and 
we saw it afterward when it was alive. 

Q. How are you certain, that what you saw was the 
body of Je^ us ? 

A. We had been long and intimately acquainted with 
him, and knew his person perfectly. 

Q. Did you not, through terror, mistake a spirit for 
a body ? 

A, No : the body had flesh and bones : and we are 
sure that it was the very body, which hung upon the 
cross ; for we saw the wound in the side, and the print 
of the nails in the hands and feet. 

Q. And all this you are ready to swear ? 

A. We are : and we are ready to die also, sooner than 
deny any part of it. 

Surely, this would satisfactorily establish the fact of 
the dead body's being removed from the sepulchre by 
supernatural means. 



( *5 ) 

4 The Jews,' the Deist says, * applied to Pilate for a 
watch to beset over the sepulchre ; but he omits the rea- 
son alleged for the request, viz. because that deceiver 
said, while he was yet alive, 44 After three days I will rise 
again* y Yet it is highly material: for at the very 
time that Jesus predicted his resurrection, he predicted 
also his Crucifixion + ; and this part of the prophecy 
they knew had, through their own malignity, been 
accurately fulfilled : yet were they so infatuated as to 
suppose, that by a guard of soldiers they could prevent 
the completion of the other. That the rest say nothing 
about this application, &c. proves nothing against it. 
Omissions are not contradictions. 

The Deist proceeds to comment on what he deems the 
variations of the Evangelists, with respect to the hour 
at which the women came to the sepulchre. But they 
agree as to the day ; and, as to the time of day, it was 
early in the morning. The degree of twilight, which 
lighted them on their way, is of little consequence. 
And John, who states that Mary Magdalene went to the 
sepulchre, does not say (as the Deist makes him say) 
that she went alone : she might, for aught that appears, 
have been accompanied by all the women mentioned in 
Luke. Lastly, on the subject of his insinuation that she 
was a woman of bad character, it deserves to be consi- 
dered whether there is any scriptural authority for the 
imputation ; and, at all events, whether a reformed 
woman of that description ought to be esteemed an in- 
competent witness of a fact. 

The stone had obviously been rolled away, by the 
statement of all the Evangelists before the women came 
to the sepulchre. Such of them as do not mention 
that this was done by an angel, who subsequently sat 
upon it, merely omit giving an account of a transaction 
which took place previously to the women's arrival* In 
the interval, the angel might have entered the sepul- 
chre ; and from the first there might have been another 
within. Luke, says the Deist, affirms 4 there were two, 
both standing up : and John affirms, they were both sit- 



* Matt, xxvii. 63, 64. 



f Matt xvi. 21. 



( 46 ) 

ting down */ He chooses to forget, that they do not 
both speak of the same instant. Luke speaks of the 
appearance to the women, and John of the appearance 
to Mary Magdalene alone, who remained weeping at 
the sepulchre after Peter and John had left it. All his 
objections, in fact, are grounded upon the mistake of 
supposing, that the angels were seen at one precise mo- 
ment, in one particular place, and by the same indivi- 
duals. 

His inference from Matthew's using the expression 
until this day +, viz. that 4 the book must have been ma- 
nufactured after a lapse of some generations at least,' is 
inadmissible against the positive testimony of all anti- 
quity. And for the bungling story about stealing away 
the body J, the chief priests are answerable, not the Evan- 
gelists. 

The Deist now cOmes to ' that part of the evidence 
in those books, that respects the pretended appearance 
of Christ after his pretended resurrection.' And his first 
blunder is misquoting Matthew xxviii. 7. for the pur- 
pose of creating a contradiction, and then condemning 
it. The passage is, 44 Behold, he goeth before you 
into Galilee;'* which might properly be translated, 4 He 
will go/ and literally means, 4 He is going.' This the 
Deist quotes, ' Behold, he is gone !' Of such a blunder 
even his dashing Matthew could not have been guilty ; 
since he adds immediately afterward, that Jesus met 
the women as they departed quickly from the sepulchre §. 
If the passage in Matthew, Then the eleven, &c» || had 
been translated (as it might better have been) And the 
eleven, all the difficulties about the anachronism of these 
disciples 4 marching to Galilee to meet Jesus in a moun- 
tain by his own appointment at the very time when, 
according to John, they were assembled in another place 
for fear of the Jews tf, totally vanish. Matthew, intent 
upon the purposed meeting in Galilee, omits the men- 
tion of many appearances recorded in John, and thus 



# Luke xxiv. 4. John xx 12, 13. f Matt, xxviii. 15. 
t Matt, xxviii. 13. § Matt, xxviii. 8. 

|| Matt, xxviii. 16. ^ John xx. 19. 



( 47 ) 

seems to connect the day of the resurrection of Jesus 
with that of the departure of the disciples. It should 
be also farther recollected, that the feast of Unleavened 
Bread, which immediately followed the eating of the 
passover, lasted seven days ; and that strict observers 
of the law did not think themselves at liberty to leave 
Jerusalem, till that feast was ended : which is a collate- 
ral proof, that the disciples did not set off for Galilee on 
the day of the resurrection *. 

The Deist asks, Why Jesus did not show himself to 
all the people after his resurrection ? So asked Spinoza. 
But God had given the Jews many opportunities of see- 
ing the miracles of Jesus, though he did not oblige them 
to believe what they saw. The Chief Priests and the Pha- 
risees, we know, admitting the miracle of the resurrec- 
tion of Lazarus f, persevered in their incredulity; and 
so probably would the other Jews have persevered also 
after the resurrection of Jesus. Lazarus had been 
buried four days, Jesus only three: the body of Lazarus 
had begun to undergo corruption, the body of Jesus saw 
no corruption. If Jesus then had shown 'himself gene- 
rally after his resurrection, the Chief Priests and the 
Pharisees would probably have gathered another coun- 
cil, and have said a second time, " What do we?" 
With respect to ourselves, the evidence of this great 
event is far more convincing as it now stands, than if it 
had been said that Jesus showed himself to every man 
in Jerusalem : for then it would have had no sifting, and 
it might have been suspected that the whole story had 
been fabricated by the Jews. 

The Deist thinks Paul an improper witness of the 
resurrection : whereas surely he was, on the other 
hand, one of the fittest that could have been chosen ; 
because his testimony is that of a former enemy. Paul 
had, in his own miraculous conversion, sufficient ground 
for believing that to have been a fact, which he had for- 

* It might be added, that the Arch-deist, Paine, reckons Luke as 
one of the Eleven ! and speaks of him as an eye-witness of what he 
relates. Though a person, who affects to write comments on the 
Bible, ought to have known that he was not an Apostle ; and we learn 
from himself, that he wrote from the testioaonv of others. Chap. i. V. 

+ Jtbn xi. 47. 



( 48 ) 

merly through extreme prejudice considered as a * fable." 
For the truth of the resurrection, he appeals to above 
two hundred and fifty living witnesses * ; and that in 
the face of those, who would not have failed to blast 
his character, if he had advanced an untruth. For Co- 
rinth was full of Jews, and contained many Christians 
following teachers, who were arrayed in opposition to 
Paul. He must have been an idiot — which no one can 
believe him to have been — if he had put it in the power 
of any of these to prove, from his own letter, that he was 
a $ liar and an impostor.' 

And now the Deist proceeds to the Ascension, about 
which he says ' neither the writer of the book of Mat- 
thew nor the writer of the book of John, has said a syl- 
lable !' John has not, indeed, given an express narra- 
tive of it ; but he has certainly said something about it : 
Go to my brethren, and say unto them, u I ascend unto my 
father and your father, and to my God and your God." If 
the fact itself be not detailed by either of them, it may 
reasonably be supposed that it was on account of it's 
notoriety. That it was notorious, is justly to be col- 
lected from the reference made to it by Peter in the 
hearing of all the Jews, a very few days after it had hap- 
pened ; This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are 
witnesses. Therefore, being by the right hand of God ex- 
alted, &c f. As to the difference of the statements of 
Mark and Luke, Mark only omits the particulars of 
Jesus going with his Apostles to Bethany and blessing 
them there, which are mentioned by Luke : and silence 
concerning a fact, the Deist must again be reminded, is 
not a denial of it J. 

* 1 Cor. xv. 6. 
f Acts ii. 32, 33. 

% Paine likewise asserts, that * the whole space of time from the 
Crucifixion to what is called the Ascension, is but a few days, appa- 
rently not more than three or four ! and that all the circumstances 
are reported to have happened near the same spot, Jerusalem.' Yet 
from John we learn, that Jesus appeared to his disciples on the day of 
his resurrection, when Thomas was not with them ; and after eight 
days, he appeared to them again, when Thomas was with them (xx. 
26.) He, also, afterward showed himself again to them at the sea of 
Tiberias, which was in Galilee, and certainly not less than sixty or 
seventy miles from Jerusalem (xxi. 1.) Nay, he was seen of the 



( 49 ) 

Had the Evangelists been impostors, they would have 
written with more caution, and avoided every appear- 
ance of contradiction. The mention of their inspiration 
is here purposely omitted: both because the Deist would 
reject such a suggestion with scorn ; and the evidence 
contained in the Gospels is competent to prove the Chris- 
tian religion worthy of all acceptation, whether their 
writers weYe inspired or not. 

IX. 

* There was no such book/ the Deist asserts, < as the New 
Testament till more than three hundred years after the 
time that Christ is said to have lived.' This is an assertion 
calculated to mislead common readers. The real case 
is as follows : The New Testament consists of twenty- 
seven parts ; concerning seven of which (viz. the Epistle 
to the Hebrews, that of James, the second of Peter, the 
second and third of John, that of Jude, and the Revela- 
tion) there being at first some doubts, the question whe- 
ther they should be received or not, was probably de- 
c ded like other questions concerning opinions, in a 
council consisting of the best theologians of their time, by 
vote. The other twenty parts were owned as canonical 
at all times, and by all Christians. Before the middle of 
the second century, as we learn from Mosheim, the 
greatest part of the books of the New Testament were 
read in every Christian society throughout the world. 
The four Gospels in particular, we are assured, were 
collected during the life of St. John : and the others 
were, probably, gathered together about the same time ; 
as the multiplication of spurious writings, full of pious 

Apostles after his death forty days (Acts i. 3.) instead of * four.' 
Surely, after all this, the readers of Paine cannot but be upon their 
guard as to the credit due to his assertions, however bold and impro- 
per. The Faustus whom he afterward quotes with approbation, and 
whom Michaelis pronounces not only ignorant of the Greek lan- 
guage, but illiterate in the highest degree, contended among other 
things (it seems) that ' the Gospel of St. Matthew could not have 
been written by St. Matthew himself, because he is always men- 
tioned in it in the third person !' 

D 



( 30 ) 



frauds and fabulous wonders, rendered it necessary tor 
the rulers of the Church to use all possible diligence in 
separating from them such works as were truly aposto- 
lical and divine. It might, indeed, easily be shown that 
presumptively the Gospels, and certainly some of Sr. 
Paul's Epistles, were known to Clement. Ignatius, and 
Polycarp, the contemporaries of the Apostles; since 
these men could net, of course, quote or refer :: Docks, 
which did not exist. Whether they were actually com- 
bined into one volume, cr not, 'is a matter of no import- 
ance whatever. 

The Deist, before he finally relinquishes his attack 
upon the historical part of the New Testament, objects 
to the phrase three dais a; J three r.ights *, as applied to 
our Saviour's being in the heart of the earth. Yet this 
only means three days: as in Genesis the expression, 
fort i dais end farti minis, means only forty davs (vii. 
12. 17. f And Jesus was in the heart of the earth on Fri- 
day, Saturday, and Sunday; in the nrst and last, apart 
of the cay (as usual with writers of all nations) being put 
for the whole. 



In proceeding to the Epistles of St. Paul, the Deist 
says, f that Apostle declares he had not believed what 
was told of the Resurrection and the Ascension.' Where 
does he make this declaration : He had persecuted the 
disciples, it is true ; but so did the High Priest and all the 
Senate of the children of Israel t. though they neither 
denied the reality of the miracles wrought by Peter and 
the Apostles, nor contradicted their testimony concern- 
ing the Resurrection and the Ascension. 

The Deist says, ( the writer of them, whoever he 
was, attempts to prove his doctrine by argument.' He 
does not : on the contrary, he in many places aharms, 
that ' his doctrine was no; taught him uy man, or any 
invention of his owi requiring the ingenuity of argument 
to support it J.' 

The Deist savs, ' that uritei dees not pretend to have 
been a witness of the stuiy of tne Resurrection.' No: 
but he affirms tnat be was a witness of me Resurrection 



* Matt, A 40. Acts v. 21. + Gal. i. 11, kc 



( 51 ) 

itself ; — He was seen of me also, as of one born out of due 
time *. 

4 The story of his being struck to the ground, as he 
was journeying to Damascus/ the Deist says, ' has 
nothing in it miraculous or extraordinary/ But surely 
it is somewhat extraordinary at least, that a man even 
struck by lightning should retain at the very time full 
possession of his understanding ; should hear a voice 
issuing from the lightning, speaking to him in the He- 
brew tongue, calling him by his name, and entering into 
conversation with him f« * His companions,' it is added, 
4 appear not to have suffered in the same manner V — the 
greater the wonder, if it were a common storm, that he 
alone should be hurt, and yet (with the exception of 
being struck blind) so little hurt as to be able immedi- 
ately to walk into Damascus ! So difficult is it to oppose 
truth by an hypothesis. 

Men, whose characters have in them a great deal of 
violence and fanaticism like that of Paul, as the Deist 
asserts, are * never good moral evidences of any doc- 
trine they preach/ So says the Deist. Lord Lyttelton 
— not a lying Bible-prophet, a stupid Evangelist, or an 
a b ab Priest ; but a learned layman, whose illustrious 
rank received splendour from his talents, says : " I think 
the Conversion and Apostleship of St. Paul alone, duly 
considered, is of itself a demonstration sufficient to prove 
Christianity to be a divine revelation/' 

The Deist asserts, the Apostle * sets out to prove the 
resurrection of the same body/ Let him produce the 
passage. Mr. Locke, who had read his epistles with at 
least as much attention and acuteness as any Deist what- 
ever, does 44 not remember any place where the resur- 
rection of the same body is so much as mentioned/' 
* As a matter of choice, forsooth, the Deist had rather 
have a better body/ And so he will : his natural body 
will be raised a spiritual body, and his corruptible will put 
on incorruption J. * Every animal/ he adds, * excels us 
in something/ On the contrary, does not the single 
circumstance of our exclusively having hands give us an 



* 1 Cor. xv. 8. f Acts xxvi. 14. * Cor. xv. 44. 53. 

d 2 



( 52 ) 

infinite superiority, even in a physical respect, over all the 
animals of the creation ? 

From a caterpillar's passing into a torpid state resem- 
bling death, and afterward appearing a splendid butter- 
fly, and from the (supposed !) consciousness of existence 
which the animal had in these different states, the Deist 
asks ; ' Why must I believe, that the resurrection of the 
same body is necessary to continue to me the conscious- 
ness of existence hereafter ?' And where is it said in 
Scripture, that it is ? 

He next pronounces the sublime extract from 1 Cor. 
xv. introduced in our burial-service, which is one of the 
finest compositions that ever occupied the mind of man, 
a ' doubtful jargon, as destitute of meaning as the toll- 
ing of the bell at the funeral/ O ye men of low condi- 
tion ! pressed down, as ye often are, by accumulated 
burthens of calamity, what thought you on hearing this 
passage read at the interment of your parent or your 
child ? Did it appear to you a * doubtful jargon V 
No : you understood from it, that you would all be 
changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last 
trump ; and that, if (notwithstanding profane attempts 
to subvert your faith) you continue steadfast, immoveable, 
always abounding in the work of the Lord, your labour shall 
not be in vain. 

Proud of a wretched modicum of science, the Deist 
now presumes to correct St. Paul for saying, one star dif- 
fereth from another star in glory ; and informs us, lie 
ought to have said, ' in distance.' Upon what basis 
does he rest his assumption, that the stars sure equal in 
magnitude, and placed at different distances ? He can- 
not prove, that they are not different in magnitude, and 
placed at equal distances ; though none of them may be 
so near to the earth, as to have any sensible annual 
parallax. It moves one's indignation, to see a little 
smattering in philosophy set against the veracity of an 
apostle. 

* Sometimes,' the Deist remarks, ' Paul affects to be 
a naturalist, and to prove (he might more properly have 
said, illustrate) his system of resurrection from the prin- 
ciples of vegetation. Thou fool, says he, that which thou 



( 53 ) 



sowest is not quickened, except it die. To which one might 
reply, in the Apostle's own language, " Thou fool Paul, 
that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die 
not." Every husbandman in Corinth would indisputably 
understand St. Paul's phrase in a popular sense; and would 
agree with him that, as from an apparently-rotten grain 
of wheat God raises the root, the stem, the leaves, and 
the ear of a new plant, so from the apparently-rotten 
corpse he might also raise a new body. Our Saviour's 
expression aboat a corn of wheat, If it die, it bringeth 
forth muck fruit *, proves that the Jews thought the 
death of the grain necessary to it's reproduction. 

4 Whether the Fourteen Epistles ascribed to Paul were 
written by him or not' is, according to the Deist, 4 a 
matter of indifference.' Surely, on the other hand, their 
genuineness is a matter of the greatest importance. If 
indeed they were written by him, as there is unquestion- 
able proof that they were, it will be difficult for any man, 
upon fair principles of sound reasoning, to deny that 
the Christian Religion is true. The argument stands 
thus St. Paul wrote several letters to those v/hom in 
different countries he had converted to Christianity, in 
which he distinctly affirms two things : first, that he had 
wrought miracles in their presence ; and, secondly, that 
many of themselves had received the gift of tongues, 
and other miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost. These 
persons must have certainly known, whether in either 
respect he spoke the truth, or not. And would Paul, a 
man confessedly of good abilities, have sent public let. 
ters full of falsehoods, which could not fail to be 
detected immediately upon perusal ? Yet, if either of 
these affirmations is correct, the Christian Religion must 
be true +. 

The Deist now closes his observations by remarking, 
* John xii. 24. 

f See Gal. iii. 2. 5. 1 Thess. i. 5. 1 Cor. ii. 4. And Corinth, in 
particular, was au enlightened city. How gladly would any of the 
factions, there opposed to him, have laid hold of declarations even of 
doubtful veracity ? The genuineness and authenticity of both the 
Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of St. Paul has been unanswerably 
established by one oi the very ablest books in the English language, 
Paley's Horce Paulines. F. W 



( 34 ) 

that < if the Bible (meaning the Old Testament) and 
Testament should hereafter fall, it is not he that has 
been the occasion/ The Bible, he may rest assured, 
which has withstood the learning of Porphyry and the 
power of Julian, the genius of Bolingbroke, and the wit 
of Voltaire, will not fall by the sophistries above ad- 
duced against it. He has barbed anew, indeed, the 
blunted arrows of former adversaries ; he has feathered 
them with blasphemy and ridicule, dipped them in his 
deadliest poison, aimed them with his utmost skill, and 
shot them against the shield of faith with his greatest 
vigour — but, scarcely reaching the mark, they have 
fallen to the ground without a stroke. 

X. 

In conclusion the Deist asserts, generally, that * ad- 
mitting revelation to be a possible thing, the thing so 
revealed is revelation to the person only to whom it is 
made. His account of it to another is not revelation. 
There is no possible criterion, whereby to judge of the 
truth of what he tells.' This is false. A real Miracle, 
performed in attestation of it, is a certain criterion. 
The reason why we believe. Jesus speaking in the Gos- 
pel, and disbelieve Mahomet speaking in the Koran, is — 
that Jesus in the presence of thousands wrought numer- 
ous miracles, which the most bitter and watchful of his 
enemies could not disallow, and Mahomet wrought no 
miracles at all. Nor is a miracle the only criterion. 
For again, if a series of Prophets should through a course 
of many centuries predict the appearance of a certain 
person, at a precise time, for a particular end ; and at 
the time predicted a person should appear, in whom all 
the circumstances previously announced were exactly 
accomplished ; such a completion of prophecy would 
be a criterion of the truth of the revelation, which that 
person was commissioned to promulge. Or if a person 
should now say, as many a false prophet is daily saying, 
that * he had a commission to declare the will of God 
and as a proof his veracity should predict, that 4 after 
his death he would rise from the dead on the third day ; 



( 55 ) 

the completion of such a prophecy would be an indis- 
putable criterion of the truth of his communications. 

' What is it/ the Deist asks, * that the Bible 'teaches 
us ?' The prophet Micah shall answer him : it teaches 
us to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with 
our God*, It inculcates justice, mercy, and piety ; not, 
as he asserts, * rapine, cruelty, and murtherl* 

And * what is it/ he farther asks, * that the Testament 
teaches us?' Not the gross lesson, which he asserts; 
but that all, who have done good, shall rise unto the resur- 
rection of life ; and all, who have done evil, unto the resur- 
rection of damnation f. The moral precepts of the 
Gospels are so well fitted to promote the happiness of 
mankind in this world, and to prepare human nature for 
the enjoyment of future blessedness, that one is surprised 
to hear the Deist object to what he calls the ' fragments 
of morality, irregularly and thinly scattered in these 
books.' As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also 
to them likewise %. Is this ' a fragment of morality ?' 
Is it not rather the vigorous root, from which every 
branch of social obligation may be derived ? It is from 
the Gospels, and from the Gospels alone, that we learn 
the importance of these obligations. Acts of benevo- 
lence and brotherly love may be to an unbeliever volun- 
tary acts : to a Christian, they are indispensable duties. 
Is a new commandment no part of Revealed Religion? A 
new commandment I give unto you, ' That ye love one ano- 
ther §.' 

Two precepts the Deist particularises, as inconsistent 
with the dignity and the nature of man ; that of not re- 
senting injuries, and that of loving enemies. Yet who, 
but the Deist, ever interpreted literally the proverbial 
phrase ; If a man smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to 
him the other also \\ ? Did Jesus himself do so, when 
the officer of the High Priest smote him ? Is it not evi- 
dent, that only a proneness to exact revenge for every 
trifling offence is here forbidden? And as to loving 
enemies, is it not explained elsewhere to mean, doing 
them all the good in our power ? Instead of ' loving in 

* Micah vi. 8. f John v. 29. X Luke vi - 31 • 
§ John xiii. 34. || Matt. v. 39 



( 56 ) 

proportion to the injury, which (if it could be done) 
would bs offering a premium for a crime;' is it not an 
injunction to emulate the benevolence of the Deity him- 
self, who maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the 
good 9 

* It has been the scheme of the Christian church,' the 
Deist asserts, * to hold man in ignorance of his Creator, 
as it is of government to hold him in ignorance of his 
rights.' Will any honest man of plain sense admit, that 
this representation in either particular is true ? When 
he attends the service of the Church, are not the public 
prayers in which he joins, the lessons which are read to 
him, and the sermons which he hears — all calculated 
to impress upon his mind a deep conviction of the mercy, 
the justice, the holiness, the wisdom, and the power 
of God ? Should the Deist's scheme indeed take place, 
and men no longer believe their Bible, they would soon 
become as ignorant of their Creator, as all the world was 
when God called Abraham from his kindred. They 
would bow down to stocks and stones, and their mouths 
would hiss their hands (as was done in the time of Job, 
and is done by the poor African at present) if they be- 
held the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in bright' 
ness * ; or, returning to the worship of Jupiter and Bac- 
chus and Venus, they would copy in the profligacy of 
their own lives the impurities of their gods. 

And what design has * government/ especially in this 
empire, to * hold man in ignorance of his rights ?' 
None whatever. All wise statesmen are persuaded that, 
the more men know of their just rights, the better sub- 
jects they will become. Enlightened subjects are, not 
from necessity but choice, the firmest friends of good 
government. The people of Great Britain know that 
they have a right to be free, not only from the caprici- 
ous tyranny of any one man's will, but also from the far 
more afflicting despotism of republican factions ; and it is 
this very knowledge, which attaches the respectable and 
sensible majority of them to the constitution of their 
country. The government does not desire, that men 
should remain in ignorance of their rights : but it both 



* Job xxxi.26, 27. 



( 57 ) 

desires and requires, that tbey shall not disturb the 
public peace under vain pretences ; that they shall 
make themselves acquainted, not merely with the rights, 
but with the duties also, of men in civil society. Of 
these rights one of the principal is, the right of property. 
Does government * hold any man in ignorance of this 
right V On the contrary, is it not it's chief care to as- 
certain and to defend it ? Utterly hostile must every 
good man be to that spurious philosophy, that democra- 
tic insanity, which would equalise all fortunes and level 
all distinctions— fortunes and distinctions, arising from 
superior probity, learning, eloquence, skill, courage, or 
other excellences ; forming the very blood and nerves 
of the body politic ; and absolutely essential, not only 
to it's well-being, but to it's actually being at all. 

We discern the wisdom and the power of God even in 
the little, which we are enabled to comprehend, of the 
material system of the universe ; and we trace his good, 
ness in having filled so much of it, as lies within our 
limited ken, with sensitive beings capable (in their re- 
spective orders) of enjoying the comforts prepared for 
them by his providence. And why should we not con- 
template this goodness in the redemption, as well as in 
the preservation, of the world ? The Deist rejects with 
contempt the history of Man's Fall, and his consequent 
liability to death. Yet he finds, by lamentable observa- 
tion, that death does reign universally. He refuses, 
likewise, to believe that Christ hath overcome death, and 
redeemed mankind. — Why ? Because, forsooth, he can- 
not account for the propriety of this redemption ! But 
what is there, that he can account for ? Not for the 
germination of a blade of corn, or the fall of a leaf of the 
forest. And will he refuse to eat of the fruits of the 
earth, because God has not given him wisdom equal to 
his own ? What father of a family can make level to 
the apprehension of his infant children all the views of 
happiness, which bis paternal goodness is preparing for 
them ; the utility of reproof, correction, instruction, &c» 
in forming their minds to piety, temperance, and pro- 
bity ? We are, at present, in the very infancy of our 
existence. What discipline may be necessary to gene- 
rate in us the qualities essential to our well-being 

£ 



( 58 ) 

throughout all eternity, we know not: whether God 
could or could not, consistently with the general good, 
have forgiven the transgression of Adam without any 
atonement, we know not : whether the malignity of sin 
be not so opposite to the general good that it cannot be 
forgiven so long as the mind retains a propensity to it, 
we know not. So that, even if there should have been 
greater difficulty in comprehending the mode of God's 
moral government of mankind, there would have been 
no solid reason for doubting it's rectitude. And, if we 
consider man but as one small member of au immense 
community of free and intelligent beings of different 
orders, regulated by laws productive of the greatest pos- 
sible good to the whole system, still more justly may we 
suspect our capacity of comprehending that moral 
government, as it refers to the universe at large. 

Even the naked creed of the Deist is not without 
depths unfathomable by it's arrogant votary. What does 
he think, for instance, of an uncaused cause of every 
thing ? What does he think of a Being, who has no 
relation to time, not being older to-day than he was yes- 
terday ; or to space, not being a part here and a part 
there, or a whole any where ? What does he think of 
an omniscient Being, who cannot know the future 
actions of a man ; or, if he can know them, what of the 
contingency of human actions ; and, without this con- 
tingency, what of the distinction between vice and 
virtue, sin and duty ? What, in short, does he think of 
the existence of evil, moral and natural, in the work of 
a Being infinitely powerful and wise and good ? There 
-would be no end of such perplexing (but, happily, un- 
important) questions. 

What a blessing it is to creatures, with powers so nar- 
row as those of man, to have that Being himself for their 
instructor, in every thing which it most concerns them to 
know — not as to the origin of arts or the depths of sci- 
ence, the subtilties of logic or the mysteries of meta- 
physics, the sublimities of poetry or the niceties of cri- 
ticism ; but — what will become of them after death, and 
what they must do whilst they live here, in order to render 
their life hereafter happy. * That thing called Chris- 
tianity,' as the Deist scoffingly speaks, the Gospel of 



( 59 ) 

Jesus Christ, has brought life and immortality to light *. 
These are tremendous truths to bad men : they cannot 
be received, and reflected on, even by the best with 
indifference. 

The generality of unbelievers, in the higher stations 
of society, are such from want of due instruction on the 
subject of religion. Engaged from their youth in the 
pursuits of v/orldly honours, or wealth, or pleasure, 
they have neither leisure nor inclination to study the 
volume of a faith founded, not upon authority, but upon 
sober investigation. These men are soon startled by 
frivolous cavils, which they find themselves incompetent 
to answer ; and the loose morality of the age (so oppo- 
site to ' Christian perfection') co-operating with their 
want of scriptural knowledge, they presently get rid of 
the scanty relics of their nursery-creed. To them, I 
fear, this little book will never penetrate, or prove 
acceptable. But there is a numerous and respectable 
class, the manufacturers and tradesmen of the kingdom, 
who are in general desirous of information. If it should 
chance to fall into their hands, and they should think 
any of the Deist's objections imperfectly answered ; they 
are entreated to impute the imperfection to brevity, to 
the desire of avoiding learned disquisitions, to inadver- 
tency, to inability — to any thing, in short, rather than 
the impossibility of perfectly answering them all. The 
youth likewise of both sexes, who (unhappily for their 
prospects in the life that now is, as well as in that which 
is to come \ ) may have imbibed the poison of infidelity, 
are implored to believe that all their religious doubts 
may certainly be removed, whether such a blessed result 
has been accomplished in these pages or not. God grant 
that the rising generation of this land, favoured as it is 
in most respects beyond all other lands, may be pre- 
served from that evil heart of unbelief, which deluged 
France for so many years with blood ; and that neither 
a neglected education, nor domestic irreligion, nor evil 
communication and the fashion of a licentious world 



* 2 Tim. i. 10. 



f 1 Tim. iv. 8. 



( <*> ) 

may ever induce them to tread under foot the Son of 
God, nor count the blood of the covenant, wherewith they 
were sanctified, an unholy thing, or do despite unto the Spirit 
of Grace *. 



THE 



END. 



PRINCIPAL PARTS 

OF 

* Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed, to the 
Constitution and Course of Nature/ 

ABRIDGED ; 



By the Rev. FRANCIS WRANGHAM. 



All things are double one against another, and God hath made 
nothing imperfect. ( Ecdesiasticus xxii, 24.) 

\Only Fifty Copies on Demy Svoi) 
1820, 



A D VER TISEMENT. 



— — 

Bishop Butler, in his invaluable 1 Analogy' ( says his Editor, Bishop 
H ALLi fax) instead of indulging in idle speculations, how the world 
might possibly have been b-etter than it is ; or, forgetful of the 
difference between hypothesis and fact, attempting to explain the 
divine economy with respect to intelligent creatures from precon- 
ceived notions of his own — first inquires what the constitution of 
Nature, as made known to us i\i the way of experiment, actually is ; 
and from this, now seen and acknowledged, endeavours to form a 
judgement of that larger constitution which Religion discovers tous. 
if the Dispensation of Providence we are now under, considered as 
inhabitants of this world and having a temporal interest to secure in 
it, be found on examination to be analogous to and of a piece with 
thai farther Dispensation which relates to vs as designed for another 
icorld, in which we have an eternal interest depending on our beha- 
viour here ; if both may be traced up to the same general laws, and 
appear to be carried on according to the same plan of administra- 
tion ; the fair presumption is, that both proceed from one and the 
same .Author. And if the principal parts objected to in this latter 
Dispensation be similar to, and of the same kind with, what we 
certainly experience under the former ; the objections, being clearly 
inconclusive in one case, because contradicted by plain fact, must in 
all reason be allowed to be inconclusive also in the other. 

This way of arguing from what is acknowledged to what is disputed^ 
from things known to other things that resemble them, from that 
.part of the divine establishment which is exposed to our view to that 
more important one which lies beyond it, is on all hands confessed to 
be just. By this method Sir Isaac Neivton has unfolded the 
System of Nature : by the same method Bishop Bvtler has ex- 
plained the System of Grace, and thus " formed and concluded a 
happy alliance between Faith and Philosophy." 

St should be remarked however, to use the concluding words of the same 
perspicuous Prefocer, that Morality and Religion, when treated as 
sciences each accompanied with difficulties of it's own, can neither 
of them be understood as they ought without a very peculiar atten- 
tion. But Morality and Religion are not merely to be studied as 
sciences, or as being speculatively true : they are!: o be regarded in 
another and a higher light, as the rule of life and manners, as con- 
taining authoritative directions by which to regulate our faith and 
practice. And in this view, the infinite importance of them consi- 
dered, it can never be an indifferent matter whethtr they be received) 
or rejected. For both claim to be the 'voice of God ; and whether 
they be so or not, cannot be known till their claims be impartially 
examined. If they indeed come from him, ice are bound to conform 
to them at our peril ; nor is it left to our choice, whether we will 
submit to the obligations which they impose upon vs or nut : for 
submit to them ice must in such a sense } if guilty, as to incur the 

A 2 



( iv ) 



punishments denounced by both against wilful disobedience to their 

injunctions. 

J need scarcely remark, that we here presuppose tJie Author of Nature, 
invested with a will and character which our whole constitution ne- 
cessarily leads us to deem moral and just and good, will act univer- 
sally upon principles in harmony and consistency with each other. 

It mail be added, that Archbishop decker, in the first three of his Post-, 
humous Sermons, did not think it unworthy of his time and talents 
to give clearness (as he has done, in a manner entirely his own ) to 
arguments, which in the ' Analogy' itself are sometimes above the 
comprehension of common readers. And this, sap a respectable 
writer, will " not be thought surprising, when it U known that he 
was perfectly familiar with that incomparable production, as well as 
intimately connected with the Author of it ; that he revised it, 
critically and carefully, before it was published ; and that, obscure 
as some parts of it may still remain, we now see H in a much more 
perfect ana intelligible form, than it would have appeared in without 
such review.' The Primate had previously rendered his friend a 
similar service in assisting him to prepare for the press his ' Fifteen 
Sermons preached at the Rolls Chapel,' a volume even by the con- 
cession of Dr. Butler himself containing Discourses "very ab- 
struse and difficult, or if you please, obscure ;" in the last of which, 
* Upon the Ignorance of Man,' were introduced the rudiments of the 
principle more copiously developed in his subsequent great work. 

That work, on it's appearance, leas justly received with the highest ap- 
plause; is, to this day, universally regarded as a master-piece of 
the kind ; and has been long recommended to Students of Divinity, 
both in the Universities and in Dissenting Academics, as the best 
exercise of their reasoning powers. 

I should leave this preliminary notice discreditably incomplete, if T 
omitted to notice that for the plan of the work — the work itself I 
had resolved upon- -and for a considerable portion of it's execution I 
am indebted to one, whom I know not whether to congratulate more 
on tlie strength and clearness of his head, or the uprightness and 
integrity of his heart. 



June 11, 1820. 



THE 

PRINCIPAL PARTS, Sec, 



■ — — 

DIALOGUE I. 



Minister, jl AM glad to meet with you, Neighbour. Ere 
this, 1 hope you have got rid of the scruples infused into 
your mind by the infidel pamphlets which have been lately 
circulated with so much mischievous industry, respecting 
the inspiration of Scripture. In our former conversation, 
you appeared to me to be forcibly impressed by the united 
evidence, external and internal, in it's favour. 

Parishioner. So I was, Sir ; yet still, to my great con- 
cern, I often feel myself harassed with new doubts, or ra- 
ther with certain old objections of my evil companions. 
But I am almost ashamed to mention them to you. 

M. O pray produce them, and put them in the strongest 
way you can. 1 never debate with cavillers : but, as 1 be- 
lieve you to be a sincere inquirer after truth, I shall listen 
to what vou have to say with the utmost attention. 

P. The Doctrines of Scripture are what I chiefly allude 
to. Of these, several are plain and edifying ; but, in gene- 
ral, they are mysterious (I had almost said, irrational) and 
treat upon subjects totally foreign to our observation and 
experience in common life. Now this, I own, staggers me ; 
and I cannot help asking ; ' Why, if the Bible is indeed di- 
vinely inspired, it's contents should be so little adapted to 
our capacities, and of course to our instruction V 

M. It certainly does contain many things, my friend, 
above our reason, but none contrary to it : and, as to our 
imperfect conceptions of the nature of spiritual things, this 
ought rather to humble us, and to make us thankful for the 
help of Revelation, than to put us upon doubting of it's 
truth. I hope, however, to satisfy you, that there is a close 



( 6 ) 

resemblance between the concerns of the present liffi* mid 
what ike Bible teaches us about a future one. But first I 
must know, what are the particular Doctrines, which appear 
to you yo unreasonable. 

P. Well then, Sir, one thing taught in (he Bible is, the 
existence of our souls alter death in a state of separation 
from our bodies. This seems to be absolutely incredible, 
when we reject upon the intimate connexion between the 
spul and the body during life, and their apparently neces- 
sary dependence upon each other. 

M. No, niy friend, surely not ■ absolutely incredible/ 
For is it not quite as surprising, that we should now have 
a being, though once we had none ? Consider but the vari- 
changes, through which we pass from infancy to old; 
age. Look at the transitions, which are continually occur- 
ring in other parts of the animal world — birds, for instance, 
bursting from their shells, worms becoming flies, &c. ; and 
then say, why it is * absolutely incredible/ that farther 
alterations should take place in man. 

P. But, Sir, the changes you mention are confined to 
bodies; and therefore prove nothing, in my opinion, with, 
respect to the soyi's existing in a state of separation from 
the body. 

M. Can we not then argue, from the circumstance of 
dreams, that the soul may be awake and active, while the 
body is sunk in sleep? By them we find, that we are at 
present possessed of a latent (and what would otherwise, 
have 'been an unimagined, unknown) power of perceiving 
sensible objects in as strong and lively a manner without our 
external organs of sense, as with them. In the case of 
dying persons, also, the soul is often strikingly vigorous, 
w&en, the body is in it's last stage of languor and decay : 
and we know, that lopping off the limbs — nay, destroying 
a considerable part even of some of the most important por- 
tions of the body — does not injure, or affect, the soul. 
Both you and 1 have, in fact, already several times over in- 
sensibly lost a great part, or perhaps the whole of our bo- 
dies, according to certain established laws of nature: yet 
we remain the same living agents. Why then, may we not 
also remain the same, when we shall lose the whole by an- 
other established law of nature, death? 

P. 1 must own, I do not see any satisfactory reason to 



( t ) 

fconcSude tlie contrary. Bui what can you point out in the 
world around us analogous to the doctrine, which teaches 
its that our happiness or misery in that future state of exist- 
ence will depend on our conduct in this? 

M. Much. Consider well the present state of things; 
and you will perceive that all we enjoy, and much of what 
we suffer, is put in our own power. We are generally happy 
or miserable, as our behaviour is virtuous or vicious. Now 
natural government by rewards and punishments as muck 
implies natural trial, as moral government does moral tnaL 
By * natural government' I mean the system, upon which 
God has annexed pleasure to some actions and pain to 
others, and given us notice of such his appointments be- 
forehand. And we see accordingly that many, blinded and 
deceived by inordinate passion, are so taken up with pre- 
sent gratifications against every suggestion of prudence, as 
to have little or no feeling of inevitable consequences, or 
regard to temporal interest : others are forcibly carried 
away, as it were, against their better judgement and feeble 
resolutions ; and not a few shamelessly avow their mere 
will and pleasure to be their law of life, though they fore- 
see that a course of vicious extravagance must infallibly be 
their ruin. Substitute now, in the above paragraph,/&fMre 
for temporal, and virtue for prudence; and this description 
will equally fit our state of trial in oar religious capacity. 
On the contrary, do we not find that, by a moderate de- 
gree of care, we may generally pass our days here on earth 
in tolerable ease and satisfaction? 

P. Vefy true, Sir. I admit that, in the course of na- 
ture, it certainly is so: but I do not distinctly perceive the 
course of nature connected with a future state, in such a 
manner as to render it probable that correspondent con- 
sequences will follow in the world to come. 

M. If you view the concerns of both worlds as under 
the control of One, ivith wkofii is no variableness neither 
shadow of turning,* you will dismiss all doubt upon the 
subject : as his natural and moral government, we cannot 
but conclude, will necessarily be conducted upon uniform 
principles. To this, indeed, our own consciences in some 
measure bear testimony. If these are not absolutely bar-* 



* Jam. i. 17. 



. < 8 ) 

$ened, vicious practices will eve* be accompanied by unea- 
siness of mind ami apprehension o? punishment, while an 
upright behaviour as certainly produces security and peace. 

P. Yet men are not always happy or miserable in this 
life, according to iheir moral conduct. Vice is often 
prosperous, and viitue pursued by suffering and disap* 
pouitment. 

M. Man, my friend, sees a part, and only a part. Yet 
even in that pari we frequently see enough of the general 
government of God, to convince us that he is not indiffer- 
ent to human actions ; and to render it at least highly pro- 
bable that a time will arrive, when his wisdom and justice 
will be cleared up, and men will be. dealt with according 
to their present behaviour. There are undoubtedly the 
wisest reasons, why the world should be governed by gene- 
ral laws; and under such government the results, which 
you have stated, will now and then perhaps unavoidably 
follow. But all this cannot drovvu the voice of nature hi 
the conduct of Providence, plainly declaring itself in favour 
of virtue. The natural conclusion of the human mind is, 
ihat the governor of the world will, in the bestowing of his 
rewards and punishments, proceed upon the principles of 
what we call ' distributive justice.' Ruling as he does by 
fixed principles and ordinances, and having endued us 
with capacities of foreseeing the good and bad conse- 
quences of our behaviour, he obviously indicates to us 
some sort of moral government. From the natural course 
of things vicious actions, we see, are to a great degree 
punished as mischievous to society, not only by actual in- 
flictions, but also by the fear and apprehension of them, 
Which is itself frequently no inconsiderable suffering. But 
farther: Virtue, as such, naturally procures considerable 
advantages to the virtuous ; and Vice, as such, great in- 
convenience and even misery to the vicious. I might in- 
stance this, in the immediate effects respectively produced 
iipon the mind and temper ; as, also, the fear of future 
punishment and the peaceful hopes of a better life, which 
generate present uneasiness and satisfaction in the mind* 
and cannot be got rid of even by those who have thought 
most deeply up»n the subject. To these may, likewise, 
be added the countenance and discountenance of all the 
honest and good, in public as well as private stations, with 



( 9 ) 

other minor considerations. If happiness and misery then 
are occasionally distributed by other rules, this may pro- 
bably be in the way of mere discipline, or as the accidental 
consequences (to be eventually compensated) of the above- 
mentioned general laws. There is, lastly, in the very na« 
ture of things, a necessary tendency in virtue and vice to 
their beiug finally rewarded and punished in a far more 
perfect degree than is at present the case ; as that ten- 
dency is uow obstructed in various respects by hindrances 
artificial, accidental, and temporary. 

P. You have certainly, Sir, put the probability of 
such a conclusion in a very strong light. I begin to un* 
derstand what the Bible says, about our being placed here 
in a state of probation to fit us for futurity. 

M. Yes ; and you will perceive a great resemblance 
between our situation in this respect, and what we expe- 
rience in the concerns of ordinary life. A state of proba- 
tion implies trial, difficulties, and danger: and we knovt 
that what is for our present interest is generally offered to 
our acquisition in such sort, as that we are in danger of 
missing it, from temptations to neglect or act contrary to 
it ; and that without attention and self-denial we oftea 
iose the advantages, which by a different conduct we might 
probably have secured. 

A state of probation implies, also, moral discipline and 
improvement. In this respect, likewise, our preparation 
for a future state is extremely similar to what we undergo 
in the present one. Thus childhood is a state of trial for 
youth, youth for manhood, and manhood for old age. 
Strength of body and mind are attained by degrees, and 
neither of them without the continued exercise of our 
powers from infancy. Nor, if we were unable to discern 
how the present life could be our preparation for another, 
would this be any objection against it's credibility. We 
do not discern, how food and sleep contribute to the growth, 
of the body. Children never think, on the one hand, that 
their darling- sports give them health and strength ; nor, 
on the other, that these sports may be pursued to a hazard* 
mis excess, and therefore require the hand of restraint : 
nor, indeed, can they comprehend the use of many parts 
of discipline, which however are essential to qualify thrift 
for the business of mature age. 



C 10 ) 

We miglit, also, infer our present situation to be a state 
of discipline, in a religious sense, from the great wicked- 
ness of mankind ; even from those imperfections, of which 
the best are conscious; from our proneness to desire for- 
bidden gratifications, and from the various temptations by 
which we are surrounded, &c. — all strongly evincing the 
necessity of recollection and self-government. 

To be a little more distinct. Allurements to what is 
wrong, difficulties in the discharge of duty, our not being 
able to maintain a course of uniform rectitude without 
perpetual thought and care, and the opportunities) real, or 
apparent) of indulging our passions by unlawful means, 
when lawful ones do not present themselves — all these 
things, with many others which might be mentioned, are 
what peculiarly adapt the world to be a school of disci- 
pline ; because they render watchfulness, resolution, and 
self-denial absolutely necessary to our improvement in vir- 
tue and piety. Neither can the fact, that the discipline of 
the world does not actually improve the generality, be 
urged as a proof that it was not intended to do so. For 
of the numerous seeds of vegetables and bodies of animals, 
which are put in the way of attaining to a certain state of 
natural perfection, we do uot see perhaps that one in a 
million actually does attain to it. Far the greater part of 
botli decay in immaturity. Yet no one will therefore deny 
that the rest, which do attain to it, were designed to do so. 
The appearance, indeed (it may be remarked) of such an 
amazing waste in nature is to us as unaccountable as — ■ 
what is much more terrible — the present and future ruin 
of so many moral agents by themselves, that is, by vice. 

Pi But, surely, the whole of this trouble and danger 
might have been avoided, by our having been made at 
once the creatures and the characters which we were to be, 

M. It is in vain to object, what might have been. We 
are inquiring into facts: and we may perceive from expe^ 
rience, that what we were to he was to be the effect of what 
we would do. The general conduct of Nature is, not to 
save us from trouble or danger, but to make us capable of 
going through them, and to put it upon us to do so. Ac- 
quirements of our own experience and habits are the na- 
tural supply to our deficiencies, and security against our 
dangers. 



( n > 

P. But, Sir, if things have been thus cant rived before- 
hand, ami could not have happened in any other way, of 
what use is Religion lo mankind 1 

M. A little reflexion, neighbour, will teach you that 
this is an idle refinement, and has nothing to do with the 
subject. Even if we were to admit the doctrine of Neces* 
sity in it's strongest sense as speculatively true, we shall 
find the conclusion with respect to ourselves exactly the 
same ; since that doctrine by no means implies, that 
God will not render his creatines happy or miserable 
according to 1heir conduct. So it is in God's natural go- 
vernment of the world, in which happiness and misery are 
not our fate in any such sense, as not to be the consequences 
of our behaviour. They are the consequences of it : and 
the common sense and experience of mankind show, that 
they feel it right it should be so. Men are rewarded, or 
punished, for their actions (punished lor actions mischievous 
to society as such, for vicious actions as such) by the natu- 
ral instrumentality of each other, under the conduct of 
Providence : and it is reasonable to infer, that this will be 
the case in the course of his eternal government. Unless 
we are prepared to say, that God ought to have made man 
happy without means, we shall not deny him the choice of 
bis own means. 

P. But still, Sir, when we see the evil and disorder 
which is permitted in the world, and the lamentable conse- 
quences which the Bible assures us will follow in their 
train, it is natural to distrust it's doctrines, and even to dis- 
pute the wisdom and goodness of the government in ques- 
tion. 

M. O no : the Bible relates matters of fact, and the 
truth of a fact has nothing to do with the wisdom and 
goodness of it. You must frequently have observed with 
surprise, in GodVnatural government of the world, that 
things seemingly the most insignificant are necessary condi- 
tions to other things of the greatest importance. This 
strongly shows the credibility, that his moral government 
may be of the same description. The chain of causes and 
consequences are both ways infinitely beyond human ken. 
Hence is supplied a general answer to all objections against 
the justice and goodness of that government. Again, in the 
ordinary events of life, meaii9 extremely undesirable often 

B 2 



( is ) 

conduce to bring about ends so desirable, as greatly to 
over-balance the disagreeableness of the means: and in 
these cases it is not reason, but experience, which shows 
us that those means are thus conducive. In many cases, 
■Iso, means are employed which, prior to experience, we 
should have expected to have had a quite opposite ten- 
dency. Is it not then equally credible, that what appears 
liable to objections in the moral dispensations of Provi- 
dence — such as, puttiug our misery to a considerable extent 
in each other's power, making men to a certain degree Ha* 
ble to vice, &c. may, eventually, prove similarly produc* 
tive of an over-balance of good ? Neither is it any prev 
sumption against this, that we do not always foresee, or 
witness, such results. The very things, which we call 
'irregularities', may be ttierely means of accomplishing iti 
some mysterious way wise and good ends; perhaps the 
only means, uuder existing arrangements, by which these 
wise and good ends are capable of being accomplished. 

P. I fear indeed, Sir, I have been too hasty in my ob- 
jections. We are poor short-sighted creatures at the best. 

M, Yes, my friend ; and our ignorance is, after all, the 
proper and satisfactory answer to these objections. Even 
in the common course of Nature, we cannot give the whole 
account of any one event. After tracing it's causes, ends, 
and necessary adjuncts to the utmost of our power, we 
shall still find that, had it not been connected with some- 
thing else both past and present, it possibly could not have 
been at all. To say nothing, therefore, on ihe subject* of 
the general laws regulating the divine administration, how 
much more difbcult must it be to comprehend the system 
of God's moral government, which extends to both 
worlds ! 

You see then, 

1. That many things prove the idea of our ceasing to 
exist at death to be palpably absurd. Our being* destined 
to pass into another state of life involves nothing paradoxi- 
cal, any more than that the child in the womb should pass 
into this. Our being now, indeed, living existences affords 
a strong probability that we shall continue so : nor has 
the contrary conclusion any other ground than the idle 
imagination that our gross bodies are ourselves or that- 
from the circumstance of the body and the soul mutually 



A 13 ) 

(though not invariably) affecting each other, the dissolution 
of the former must necessarily be the destruction of the 
latter. Even if that event could be supposed to suspend 
the exercise of the faculties of the soul, such suspension 
would by no means imply extinction, as we may be con- 
vinced by sleep or a swoon. 

2. We find that, amidst this unbounded prospect o£ 
futurity opened to our hopes and fears, there is no pre- 
sumption whatever against the inference of our eternal 
interests depending upon our present behaviour: as we 
perceive our present interest does so^ and perceive, like- 
wise, that the happiness and misery naturally annexed to 
our actions frequently follow those actions at a considera* 
trie distance. In what relates both to this world and the 
next, in short, we are equally trusted, with ourselves — our* 
own conduct, and our own welfare. 

3. We discover, in the very confusion and disorder of 
the world, the rudiments and beginnings of a moral go* 
vernment of it ; as deducible particularly from the compa- 
rative satisfaction and uneasiness, which are the natural 
consequences of a virtuous and a vicious course of life, the 
love of good characters and dislike of had ones, &c. 

4. We infer from the temptations to be unfaithful to 
our temporal interests, and our consequent difficulties and 
danger, arising out of the constitution of Nature (especially, 
as coupled with that course of things which is owing to 
mankind) that there may be similar difficulties and dan- 
ger, with regard to our chief and final good. 

5. That our present state was intended to be a school 
of moral discipline, is rendered highly credible by the con. 
siderations that we are plainly made for improvement of all 
kinds, and that by the general appointment of Providence 
we are ordained to cultivate practical principles, and form 
within ourselves habits of action (in our preparatory stages, 
for instance, of childhood and youth) in order to become 
fit for what we were unfit for before. 

6. It is obvious, from the evidence as it were of expe- 
rience, that all objections against Religion, founded on the 
scheme of necessity, are delusive and vain : and 

7. It appears that God, in the incoinprelieusibleness of 
his natural government of the world, has supplied an answer 



( y > 

to all our narrow and purblind objections against his mo--* 
ral government. 

Surely then the credibility of Religion, arising from, ex- 
perience and the facts above-stated, is fully sufficient in 
reason to recommend to mankind the general practice of 
virtue and piety, under the serious apprehension of p. 
righteous administration established in nature and a future 
judgement in consequence of it : particularly* when we re- 
flect how very questionable it is, whether any thing at all 
can be gained by vice ; how unquestionably little, as well 
as precarious, the pleasures and profits of it are at the best ; 
and how soon they must be parted with at the longest. 

P.. Very true, Sir : but I will trespass upon your patU 
ence no longer at present. You have pointed out to me 
matter for much and serious reflexion; and, if I do not 
profit from it, assuredly it must be my own fault . 



■A 



( 15 ) 



DIALOGUE 21. 



Parishioner. Oh! Sir, I am glad to meet witn you 
again, I have thought deeply upon the subjects of our last 
conversation ; and I am perfectly convinced, both from 
reason and observation, that the soul is immortal, and that 
there will be a future state of rewards and punishments. 

Minister. Yon would scarcely ever have doubted 
either, my friend, bat for the perverse and wicked inter- 
ference of your infidel neighbours : for these joints are 
connected with what is called 'Natural Religion,* =*nd are 
therefore supposed to be discoverable by the light of rea- 
son—a light, however, so sadly obscured by our evil pas- 
sions, that we ought to feel the utmost gratitude ou finding 
them illustrated in Scripture with such a superior degree 
of brightness. 

P, Yet, alas! Sir, I am far from being relieved from 
all my difficulties on the head of Religion. Many still 
press heavily upon my mind. 

M. I do not wonder at it. I suppose you allude to 
these peculiarly Christian doctrines, which unfold the grand 
Dispensation carried on by the Son and the Spirit of God 
in order to redeem mankind from their stale of guilt and 
ruin. These are, indeed, purely the subject of Revelation, 
and could never have been discovered by the mere exercise 
of our natural faculties. 

P. They do, certainly, seem to me to be wrapped up 
in mystery. 

AT. Without controversy, great is the mystery of god- 
liness f* But so far as these doctrines are propounded Ip 
our faith and practice, I think 1 can convince you that they 
are not more unaccountable than many occurrences, which 
arise in the course of God's natural government of the 
world. Pray, therefore, proceed to state your objections 
to me as fully and freely as before. 

P. I own then that, with respect to the general system 
of Christianity, 1 remark an inconsistency in it's tenets and 
an obscurity in it's language, which makes it appear to 

♦ 1 Tim. iii. 16. 



same persons to be foolishness .* It is also, as might have 
been easily foreseen, the occasion of much enthusiasm and 
superstition ; and it is, frequently, made to serve the pur- 
poses of tyranny and wickedness. Again; it's evidences 
inight have been rendered clearer, and more satisfactory ; 
and the knowledge of it inight have been communicated 
more early, and diffused more univei sally. Such views as 
these are extremely trying to one's belief. 

M. But, upon the supposition of a Revelation, is it not 
likely beforehand, that we should to a considerable extent 
be incompetent judges of it, and that it would contain 
many things seemingly liable to great objections 1 We can- 
not be sufficiently acquainted with the secrets of the Divine 
Government to decide on grounds of reason, previously to 
such Revelation, what degree of new knowledge it would 
please God to vouchsafe to mankind ; whether the evi- 
dence of this new knowledge would be certain, or highly 
probable, or doubtful ; whether it would be unfolded at 
once, or gradually ; whether all men would receive it, with 
equal clearness and conviction, at the same period or suc- 
cessively ; or even whether it should have been committed 
to writing, or left to be handed down (and, consequently, 
corrupted) by verbal tradition. — For we are in no sort 
judges beforehand by what laws or rules, in what degrees 
or by what means, it might be expected that God would 
have conveyed to us similar information upon natural sub- 
jects. 

If men will be regardless of these things, and pretend to 
judge of the Scripture by preconceived expectations, the 
analogy of Nature shows beforehand not only the high cre- 
dibility that they may, but also the great probability that 
they will, imagine they have strong objections against it, 
however really unexceptionable : for so, prior to experi* 
ence, they would think they had against the circumstance*? 
and degrees and whole manner of that instruction, which is 
afforded by the ordinary course of Nature. Were the in- 
struction, which God affords to brute creatures by instincts 
and mere propensions, and to mankind by these in con- 
junction with reason, matter only of probable proof and 
not of certain observation; in would in many cases be re- 
jected as incredible, simply from the seeming dispropor- 



• l Cor. i. 6. 



( 17 ) 

tions, limitations) and circumstances of it. For instance: 
Would it not have been thought highly improbable that 
men should have been so much more capable of discover- 
ing, even to certainty, the general laws of matter and the 
precise magnitudes *nd motions of the heavenly bodies, 
than the occasions and cures of distempers, and many other 
things in which human life seems so much more nearly 
concerned than in astrouomy? And again; that brutes 
without reason should act, in many respects, with a saga- 
city and foresight vastly greater than what we have in these 
respects, would (as a subject of anticipation) have been 
thought impossible. Yet it is certain, that they do act 
with such superior foresight, from daily observation. Hence 
it is highly credible beforehand that, upon supposition God 
should afford to men some additional instruction by Revela- 
tion, it would be in degrees and after manners which we 
should be apt to fancy not a little objectionable. 

P. True, Sir ; but surely a Revelatiou so very imper- 
fect—one, fot instance, not put into writing, and thus 
guarded against a principal source of corruption — would 
never have answered it's purpose, 

M. What purpose do vou mean? It would not have 
answered ail the purposes which it has now answered, and 
in the same degree ; but it would have answered others, or 
the same in different degrees: and which of these was the 
purpose of God, and best fell in with his general govern- 
ment, we could not at a 1 have pre-determined. This shows 
that, however objections against ihe evidences of Christian 
nity deserve to be seriously considered, objections against 
Christianity itself are in a great measure frivolous. The 
only questions here are, whether Christianity be a real Re- 
velation, not whether it be attended with every circum- 
stance which we should have looked for: and whether 
Scripture be what it claims to be, not whether it be a book 
of such sort and so promulgated, as weak men are apt to 
fancy a book containing a divine Revelation should be. 
And therefore neither obscurity, nor seeming inaccuracy of 
stile, nor various readings, nor early disputes about the au- 
thors ol particular parts, nor any other things of the same 
kind (even though they had been much more considerable 
in degree, than they really are) could overthrow it's author 
rity — unless \kt Projihets, tbe Apostles, or our Lord bim- 



( 18 ) 

self had promised, that it should be secure from all these 
circumslances. 

P. But Christianity being represented as an expedient 
to recover the world from it's state of ruin, and to help iu 
those respects where Nature fails, is it credible that so 
many ages should have been suffered to elapse before a 
matter of such infinite, importance was made known to 
mankind, and that then it should have been disclosed to so 
small a portion of it ? or that it should, after all, be so 
defective, so beset with doubts, and so liable to perversion ? 

M. Perfectly credible, if we will only admit the light 
of Nature and that of Revelation to proceed from the same 
Author. IVJen are naturally liable to diseases, for which 
God in his good providence has provided natural reme- 
dies : but these remedies, though existing in Nature, lay 
concealed from mankind for \ many ages/ and are still 
known only to comparatively few. Their qualities, not- 
withstanding long and laborious investigation, are often 
undetected ; and their application is precarious. Some of 
the most useful of them, indeed, have at one time or other 
incurred contempt and rejection ; and, unskilfully or dis- 
honestly administered, may bring on new diseases. Even 
"when administered in the most judicious and upright mail' 
ner, their success is often doubtful. They are fre quently 
imperceptible, or tardy, in their operation ; and, from the 
regimen usually connected with them, in a large plurality of 
instances they are disagreeable. Nor are the sick invariably 
so fortunate, as to be always in the way of them. Many 
never are so. In short, they are neither certain, perfect, 
nor universal : and indeed the same principle of arguing, 
which would lead us to conclude from tlie divine goodness 
that they must necessarily be so, would lead us likewise to 
conclude with equal assurance that there could be no oc- 
casion for them, i. e. no diseases, at all : as the necessity of 
the Christian Dispensation, it may be conte: led, might 
also have been superseded by preventing Ihe Fall of Man, 
so that he should not have stood in any need of a Re- 
deemer. But this mode ©f objecting is resolvable into 
principles aud goes upon suppositions, which mislead us to 
think that God would not act, even in his natural govern- 
ment of the world, as we experience he does; or would 
act, in such and such moral cases, as in like natural cases 
v*e esperiecce he does not. 



( 19 ) 

P. If we are to reason from the course of Nature, I 
own it appears in I lie highest degree probable, that a divine 
Revelation might contain many thin gs a ppa ren 1 objection- 
able. Still, however, these imperfections— for such 1 must 
call them — assuredly impeach it's wisdom and goodness. 

M. Not, if our inability to comprehend the whole of 
that Revelation be admitted. And since in the Christian 
Dispensation we perceive means used to accomplish ends, 
in the same manner as in God's natural government, we 
may reasonably infer that both are under the regulation of 
general laws : in which case, we can no more be authorised 
1o arraign the wisdom or goodness of the one system, than 
that of the other. For of these general laws, in either 
respect, we understand in a manner nothing. The laws, 
i y w'ich storms and earthquakes, famine and pestilence 
become the instruments of destruction to mankind ; by 
which persons, born at such a particular time and place, 
are of such and such talents, temper, and capacities ; by 
which thoughts, in many instances, come into our minds, 
&C.&C. are so little known to us, that we call I ben* results 
• accidental though all reasonable men know jj&r udy 
that there cannot in reality be any such thing as chance, 
and refer these results unhesitatingly to the operation of 
some hidden general laws. This they do from analogy ; 
from finding that general laws, as far as they can discern, 
regulate the ordinary course of Nature. Hence it is at 
least credible, that God's miraculous interpositions may 
have, also, been regulated by general laws of wisdom. That 
miraculous powers should have been exerted at such times, 
upon such occasions, in such degrees, [and with regard to 
such persons, rather than other; that the affairs of the 
world, after having gone on in their natural course to a 
certain point, should just at that point miraculously receive 
a new direction — all this may have been by general laws — 
laws unknown, indeed, to us; but not more unknown than 
those, by which it is ordained that some individuals should 
die as soon as the,y are born, and others live to extreme 
old age : that one man should, in understanding or bodily 
power, far surpass another ; with innumerable other things, 
which (though, as I before observed, we cannot with cer- 
tainty, or at all, pretend to assign their causes) we deem as 
much reducible to general laws, as the results of gravitation 
itself. 

c 2 



( 20 ) 



P. But, in the plan formed for the redemption of man- 
kind, a long series of intricate means is resorted to • just 
as men, for want of understanding or power not being able 
to come at their ends directly, are forced to go round-about 
ways, and make use of many perplexed contrivances to 
arrive at them, 

M. And, pray does not the natural course of Provi- 
dence exhibit similar appearances? In this, according to 
our manner of conception, God makes use of variety of 
means (and frequently, in our opinion, tedious means) for 
the accomplishment of all his ends. The whole of nature, 
indeed, is a system — not a fixed, but a progressive one ; 
a system, in which the operation of means often takes up 
a great length of time, before they produce the intended 
result, The change of seasons, the ripening of the fruits 
of the earth, the very history of a flower is an intance of 
this: and so, in it's various progresses, is human life. 
Vegetable and animal bodies gradually altain to maturity. 
The rational agents, which animate the superior classes of 
these latter bodies, are naturally directed to form each his 
own character by the gradual gaining of knowledge and 
experience, and by a long course of action. Our existence 
is not only successive, as it must of necessity be, but one 
state of it is appointed by God to be a preparation for 
another. Thus it j the daily course of nature, Providence 
operates in the very same manner, as in the Dispensation of 
Christianity, 

P. I must acknowledge you have removed my mis- 
givings, as to the general plan of that Dispensation: but there 
are some particulars in it, which still haunt and harass me. 

M. Pray mention them, by all means. 

P. The appointment of a Mediator between God and 
Man is one of them. That we are all involved in a state 
of guilt and ruin, I must with grief confess. Every thing 
within and around me confirms what the Bible states upon 
that head. But I cannot conceive why mercy and help 
might not have been imparted at once, and without the 
interference of another. How much more simple would 
such a process have been ! Whereas the mode of relief 
said to be actually adopted is contrary, not only to every 
reasonable expectation which we could have formed on 
that subject, but also to every thing which we observe in 
the common course of nature or in human transactions. 



z 



( m ) 

M. You, surprise me, my friend, by this assertion: as 
to me it appears that the visible government which God 
exercises over the world is almost entirely carried on by a 
system of mediation, whether in the way of justice or of 
mercy ; nay, that all living creatures are produced, and 
their lives in infancy preserved, through the instrumenta- 
lity of others. 

P. But, in this particular instance, is it not much more 
natural to suppose that the remission of our punishment, 
and our recovering of the Divine favour, would have been 
made to depend solely upon our own Repentance and, Re- 
formation 1 

M. Not, if we borrow our ideas from what we see 
passing in the .world about us; where misery and ruin are 
f'requeutiy the consequences of irregular and disorderly 
behaviour, even in such cases of rashness and negligence as 
we scarcely call 'vicious.' Nor will repentance and reform- 
ation, or any degree of personal exertion, in many of these 
cases, prevent such consequences. It is surely then not 
less credible that, under the same Divine government, the 
punishment of sin will be proportionally severe and equally 
irretrievable. For only consider what it is for creatures, 
moral agents, presumptuously to rebel against a Being of 
infinite holiness and justice, and to introduce into his king- 
dom that confusion and wretchedness which mankind have 
in fact introduced ; to blaspheme their Sovereign Lord ; 
to contemn his authority, and to be injurious in the degree 
they are to their tellow-creatures, the creatures of God ! 
Under such circumstances, is it too much to affirm, that our 
repentance and reformation would, most probably, be in- 
sufficient to avert the dreadful consequences of our trans* 
gressions? How shall he, think you, who can barely with 
his utmost efforts earn a subsistence, be able to liquidate 
the debt contracted by the negligence or the profligacy of 
one fatal day? 

P. But don't you lay too much stress, Sir, upon the 
inability of mankind to retrieve the effects of their mis- 
conduct in the common course of life ? Such cases are, 
surely, not sufficiently numerous to warrant the inference, 
which you would draw from them. 

M. Alas! the instances are but too frequent, in which 
wc see persons ruin their fortunes by extravagance .and 
their -health by intemperance, and incur the vaiions penal* 



( 2? ) 



lies of the municipal laws, in these cases, will sorrow for 
the past and good conduct for the future, alone and of 
themselves, avail to prevent the ordinary consequences of 
such conduct] Qn the contrary, men's natural ability of 
helping themselves is often impaired ; or, if not, they are 
yet forced, in various ways, to be beholden to the assistance 
of others. Why, then, is it not supposeable that a similar 
result may take place in our more important capacity, as 
under God's moral government, and having a more general 
and future interest depending? 

P. I own the force of your observations: and to crea- 
tures, involved as we are in the ruinous consequences of 
sin, such a provision must be desirable beyond measure. 

M. So at least the speculations of the wise and the 
practice of the unwise among the very heathens lead us to 
conclude. Hence Plato's well-known wish, the wavering 
creed of Tnlly, and the propitiatory sacrifices of the whole 
Pagan world, to which even a dying Socrates chose to con- 
form. Happily for ourselves, in this exigency Revelation 
removes every apprehension, which might otherwise lay 
hold upon us ; and informs us, that although the Divine 
government will not admit of pardon immediately and di- 
rectly upon repentance, or by the sole efficacy of it, yet 
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, 
that whosoever helieveth in him (not certainly in a specula- 
tive, but a practical sense) should not perish* — gave him 
in the same way of goodness, though in degree infinitely 
heightened, as he provides for particular persons -the 
friendly assistance of their fellow-creatures, when without 
it their temporal ruin would be the certain consequence of 
their follies. It elsewhere states, that the Son of God 
loved us and gave himself for us,f with a love which he 
himself compares to human friendship, though in this 
instance all comparisons must fall infinitely shoit of the 
reality. He interposed in such a manner as was effectual 
to inteicept that punishment, which according to the gene- 
ral laws of the Divine government must otherwise have 
followed the sins of the world. 

Some persons, indeed, profess to disbelieve the doc- 
trine of Christ's atonement and intercession, because 
they cannot (they say) comprehend it. But as we could 



* John iii. 16. f Eph, v, 2. John xv. 12—14. Roni.v. 8, 



( 23 

not have been judges, antecedently to Revelation, whe- 
ther a Mediator was or was not necessary to prevent the 
future punishment, and secure the final happiness, of fallen 
and offending man ; so neither could we, as to the whole 
nature of his office, or what was requisite to be assigned 
to him in order to accomplish the ends of Providence in 
the appointment. Such objections are therefore of small 
account, unless any part of the mediatorial office of Christ 
could be positively shown not to be requisite or condu- 
cive to it's proposed ends, or to be in itself unreasonable. 

P. One objection I recollect — I assure you, Sir, it 
is not my own — which seems to be of that positive cha- 
racter, viz. that the doctrine of Christ's being appointed 
to suffer for the sins of mankind represents God the Fa- 
ther as indifferent, whether he punished the innocent or 
the guilty. 

M. But you must clearly see, my friend, that this 
objection points just as much against the whole natural 
government of the world; in which it is obviously ap- 
pointed, that the innocent should suffer for the sins of the 
guilty, as in the instance of transmitted diseases, &c. 
Nay, if there were any force at all in the remark, it 
would be stronger in one respect against natural Provi- 
dence, than against Christianity : because under the 
former we are in many cases commanded, and even ne- 
cessitated whether we will or not, to suffer for the faults 
of others ; whereas the sufferings of Christ were volun- 
tary. Men by their follies frequently run themselves 
into difficulties, which would be absolutely fatal to 
them, were it not for the assistance of others : and 
this assistance God, by the law of nature, injoins us 
to afford — often, with great labour and sufferings to 
ourselves. So that such objections to the satisfaction 
of Christ arise, either from a total disregard of God's 
settled and uniform appointments, or an entire forgetful- 
ness that vicarious punishment is a providential appoint- 
ment of every day's experience. 

That mankind are at present in a state of degrada- 
tion, different from that in which they were originally 
created, is the very ground of the Christian Revelation 
as contained in the Scriptures. Whether we acquiesce 
in the account that our being placed in such a state is 
owing to the crime of our first parents, or choose t<» 



( 24 ) 



•ascribe it to •nrr other cause, it makes no difference in 
our condition : the vice and unhappmess of the -world 
are still there, notwithstanding all our suppositions; nor 
is it Chris tianity, that hath put us into this state. TVe 
learn also from the same Scriptures, what experience 
and the us 1 ? of expiatory sacrifices from the most eaily 
times might hare taught us, that repentance alone is not 
sufficient to prevent the fatal consequences of past trans- 
gressions : but that still there is room for mercy, and 
that repentance shall be available, though not of itself, 
vet through the mediation of a Divine Person (the Mes- 
siah) Tvho from the sublimest principles of compassion 
died, the just for the unjust ~ that we might have red emp~ 
tion through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. t In 
3S"hat way, indeed, the Death of Christ procured this 
reconciliation of sinners, the Scriptures have not ex- 
plained. But it is enough, that the doctrine is distinctly 
revealed; that it is not contrary to any truths, which 
reason and experience teach us; and that it accords in 
perfect harmony with the usual method of the divine 
conduct in the government of the world. 

P. 1 must confess this method of redemption has a 
strong apparent tendency to vindicate the authority of 
God's laws, as well as to deter men from sin: and this, 
surely, ought to weigh as an argument with those, wh o 
are disposed to extol human reason. 

M. Yes ; and it is an argument, which I have .never 
heard refuted. — But, after all, the credibility of these 
doctrines is not to be tried at the bar of human reason ; 
and I trust I have satisfied you of the absurdity of dis- 
believing them, merely because we do not see their ne- 
cessity or expediency. For though it is highly right, 
and the most pious exercise of our understanding, to 
inquire with due reverence into the ends and objects of 
God's Dispensations ; yet. when these elude our re- 
search, to argue from our ignorance that such dispensa- 
tions cannot be from God, is infinitely absurd. Tfce 
presumption of such a conclusion, indeed, seems almost 
lost in the felly of it. And the folly of it is yet greater, 
when it is urged (as it usually is) agair-t things in 
Christianity similar to these natural dispensations of 



* 1 PeL ill IS, 



t Cok t 14 



< 25 ) 

Providerfce, which are matter of experience. Let reason 
be kept to : and if any part of the Scripture-account of the 
redemption of the world by Christ can be shown to be 
really contrary to reason, let the Scripture be given up : 
l>ut let not such poor creatures as we are, object 
against an infinite plan, that we do not perceive the neces- 
sity or expediency of all it's parts, and call this 'reasoning' 
— particularly, when they are parts, in which we aie not 
actively concerned. For not tmlv the reason of the thing, 
but the whole analogy of Nature, should teach us not to 
expect to have trfe like information concerning the Divine 
conduct, as concerning our own duty. God instructs us by 
experience, uot reason, what good or bad consequences 
will follow from our acting in such or such a manner; and 
thus directs us, how we are to behave ourselves in the ordi- 
nary concerns of life : yet these are but an almost infinitely 
small part of natural Providence. The case is the same 
with regard to Revelation. The doctrine of a Mediator 
between God and man, against which it is objected, that 1 the 
expediency of some of it's parts is not understood/ relates 
only to what was done by God in the appointment and by 
the Mediator in the execution of it. What is required of 
us, in consequence of this gracious Dispensation, is another 
subject, in which none can complain for want of informa- 
tion. The constitution of the world, and God's natural 
government over it, is all mystery, as much as Christianity 
itself. Yet, under the first, he has given men atl things 
pertaining to life; and ail things pertaining unto godii* 
ness,* under the latter. 

Placed therefore, as man is, with such prospects of futu- 
rity, and such responsibility, in such a state of trial, c'ifli- 
culties, and danger, and provided with such means of de* 
liverance, he can have no doubt about his duty. 

P. Indeed, Sir, you have given me full satisfaction 
upon a most important subject, for which I cannot suffici- 
ently thank you, 

* 2 Pet, i, 3, 



C 



X *6. ) 



DIALOG III. 

Minister* Wei!, neighbour, f suppose by Wis time you 
are bi-come a champion for the faiVft of the Gospel. 

Parishioner. Ah ! Sir, you are dispbseU to be pleasant. 
The in form atioir, which yoti have so kindTy given me, has 
indeed made 'a stroWg impression upon hiy mind : but, alas ! 
any difficulties are Viot yet quite removed, t fold you, 1 
Should t*y y6\ir patience. 

'M. N'd, tio : besides, I re'cblleclt Vw : 6 objections made- 
by > so fn our last conversation, which we have not yet 'dis- 
cussed ; I mean, the circumstance of the Revelation of 
Christianity not having been made universal, and the im- 
perfect evidence afforded Vis the truth of that Revela- 
tion, compared witti wba't God mrgmt have afforded had he 
thought proper,, 

P. These ar'e the very things, 'to which I alluded. 
They are, indeed, the only subjects of doubt, I think, 
which remain : but they are, certainly, very serious Ones. 

M. So they may appear to you: yet, in reality, they 
amount to no more than this— vfe. that it is incredible God 
should have VestoWed any favour at all upon us, Unless iu 
the degree in which we think he might (and, for our par- 
ticular advantage, should) have done; and, also, that it 
4*anuot be surij3osed he would bestow a faVoUr updh any, 
unless he bestowed thesame upon all. 

P. But you proposed, when We first entered upon this 
"subject, tO Show me that (in general) the difficulties, of 
Jfodtich rcOmplained/were equally apparent in God's natural 
government of the world* Now, doe's this 'hold in the pre* 
$ent instance ? 

W. ! lVcertim\y does : for, in the course of that govern- 
ment, we see the Almighty bestowing his gifts with the Midst 
promiscuous variety ; such as health and strength, capaci- 
ties of knowledge, means of improvement, riches, and all 
external advantages. And, as there are not any two men 
formed exactly alike in shape and features, so there are 
probably not any two of an exactly like situation, temper, 
md constitution with regard to the goods and evils of life. 



( 27 > 

P. But, io so important a matter 33 religious instruc- 
lion, is there not some injustice shown to those, who are 
suffered to labour iiit<Jer any disadvantages? 

M. God forbid ! Shall not the Judge of all the earth 
do right?* We confess I his in words: Jet us never for- 
get ii in fact, or try to explain it away. Hud the Christian 
Revelation even been univeisal at first, yet from the diver- 
sity of men's abilities both of mind and body, their various 
opportunities, &c. some persons must soon have been in a 
situation, with respect to religious knowledge, much supe- 
rior to that of others, as much perhaps as they are at pre- 
sent: just as, if ever the levelling principle of an Agrarian 
law should (fatally for any country) be adopted, the pro- 
perties which had been correctly equalised iu the beginning 
of the week, would by the operation of indolence, intemper- 
ance, incapacity, and a thousand other causes, have become 
widely unequal before the end of it. Neither would there 
have been the same room for the exercise of that peculiar 
dutv, the diffusing of religious knowledge in unenlightened 
districts, which now (as in the case of the relative duties 
practised by the rich toward the poor) so honourably, and 
so advantageously, distinguishes a large portion of the 
Christian community. Besides, we may rest assured that 
every merciful allowance will be made, and no more re- 
quired of any one, than what might be equitably expected 
from him under the circumstances in which he has been 
placed ; or (to use Scripture-language) that every man will 
be accepted according to that he hath, and not according 
to that he hath not.f 

P. Admitting, however, the Divine wisdom and good- 
ness as to the manner and measure of the Gospel-revela- 
tion, still I cannot get over my misgivings as to the credibi- 
lity of it's Evidences. Those evidences, 1 allow, are very 
weighty; and the oftener I consider them, the more they 
appear to be so : but then the objects, to which they apply, 
are remote; and, at the best, they amount only to strong 
probabilities. How different is this trosn the certainties 
upon which we are enabled to act in the concerns of the 
present lite ! 

M. 1 should be surprised at your misapprehension on 



* Gen. x,viii. 25. ,t 2 Cor. viii. 12. 



( 28 ) 

this subject, did I not perceive lhe same also m many 
other persons, whose minds are otherwise well disposed. 
To detect the fallacy — for I can call it uothi'g better — you 
must allow me to be somewhat copious, where perhaps on 
a superficial view a few words might seem to suffice. 

P. It is too interesting a topic, not to make me all 
attention. 

M. 1 begin, then, with denying those certainties in life, 
whicfi you so readily take for granted. We see the ebb 
and flow of the Tide to-day. This affords a presumption, 
though the lowest imaginable, that it may happen again 
to-morrow. But the ©bservation of such an event for so 
many days ami months and ages together, as it has been 
observed by mankind, gives us a full assurance that it will. 
So it is, with respect to the common incidents of. life. It 
is not certainty, but probability in a higher or lower de- 
gree, which forms the measure of our hopes and fears con- 
cerning the success of our pursuits in general. Now you 
liave admitted that there is a probability, and a strong one 
too, in favour of Religion: and, if so, we are bound in 
reason to act upon it. 

jP. Perhaps I expressed myself too forcibly : for in the 
case you put, and others which occur in life, the probabi- 
lity certainly rises higher than any, upon which we can be 
supposed to form our religious principles. 

M, It may do so, in a few instances; but in general 
we act upon very slight evidence indeed, in what relates to 
our temporal interests. It is not only extremely difficult, 
but in many cases absolutely impossible, for us to balance 
pleasure and pain, satisfaction and uneasiness, so as to be 
able to pronounce on which side the overplus is. There 
are the like difficulties and impossibilities in making the 
due allowance for a change of temper and taste, for satiety, 
disgusts, ill health, &c. any of which render men incapable 
of enjoying, after they have obtained, what they most 
eagerly desired. Numberless too ate the accidents, beside 
that one of untimely death, which may probabl) disappoint 
the best-concerted schemes ; and unanswerable objections 
may he seen to lie against them, which seem however to 
be overbalanced by reasons on the other side. In such 
cases, the positive Difficulties and dangers of a pursuit are 
by every one deemed justly disregarded, on account of the 



( 29 ) 

apparently greater advantages to accrue in the event o£ 
success, though of that success there be but little probabi- 
lity. We are liable, also, to be deceived by false appear- 
ances ; and ihis danger must be greater, if there be a strong 
bias within (suppose, from indulged passion) to favour the 
deceit. Yet men do not therefore throw away life, or dis- 
regard it's interests. On the contrary, they often engage in 
pursuits, where the probability is greatly against them: 
and this conduct is deemed so rational, that in numberless 
instances a man would be thought in a literal sense dis- 
tracted, who would not act — and with great application, 
too— not only upon what is called an ' even chance,' but 
upon much less/ and where even the very lowest degree of 
presumption existed. Now apply this to the evidences of 
Christianity, and our obligations to act upon them. 

P. The inference is, I own, irresistible. I find I was 
too hasty in forming my estimate of the evidence, which 
influences human concerns. 

M. Consider, ais », that the wisdom or folly of a man's 
conduct in life, in bt ing influenced by probabilities or the 
contrary, is generally measured by the importance of the 
good to be obtained or the evil to be avoided. Thus he, 
who would be ridiculed for his credulity in acting upon a 
vague rumour, or on the information of a person of doubt- 
ful veracity, in order merely to avoid some trivial inconve- 
nience or obtain some petty advantage ; would be blamed 
for disregarding such rumour or information, where the 
exercise of a small degree of caution or activity in conse- 
quence of it might save the life of his child, or secure to 
him the possession of a valuable inheritance. 

P. Certainly. 

M. How much more, then, is it our wisdom and our 
thity, in a concern of such infinitely superior consequence 
as our eternal welfare, to examine diligently the multiplied 
evidences in favour ot Christianity ; and, if these be 
found probable, to be guided by the light of it's doctrines I 

P. Undoubtedly. 

M. But here I shall not rest the matter : for I 
contend farther, that were the evidences of Christianity 
much weaker than they really are — nay, were they reduced 
to the very lowest degree of probability imaginable — it 
would be equally our duty to search into, and be influenced 
by them. 



( so ) 

P. This is, indeed, going very far : and yet, consider- 
ing the amazing importance of the Christian Doctrines, and 
the danger of our inattention where our all a^d for ever is 
at stake, 1 cannot help agreeing with you. 

M, Yes, my friend : the very supposition that these Doc- 
trines may be true ought, in all reason, to furnish matter 
of exercise for religious suspense and deliberation, for 
moral resolution and self-government ; because such sup* 
position does as really lay men under obligations, as a full 
conviction of their truth. It gives occasion and motives to 
consider farther the mighty subject, to preserve attentively 
upon their minds a general implicit sense that they may.be 
nuder divine moral government, an aweful solicitude about 
Religion, whether Natural or Revealed. It ought, indeed, 
to turn meu's eyes to every degree of new light, from what- 
ever sid« it comes. But especially are they bound to keep 
at the greatest distance from all dissolute profaneness, and 
to treat with deep reverence a matter in which their whole 
interest and being and the fate of nature depends; and 
this — even admitting the Evidences of Christianity to be as 
slight as we can possibly conceive. And if this duty be 
kicumbeut on alt, it umst be particularly so on those* who 
have a character of understanding or a situation of influence 
jn the werid, and consequently have it in their power to 
do infinite harm or good by setting an example of profane- 
ness and avowed disregard to Religion, or the contrary. 

P. In this point of view it seems probable, that one end 
©f our not being favoured with stiii clearer evidences pf 
Christianity may be to try mankind, in the religious sense, 
py giving scope for a virtuous exercise or vicious neglect 
©f their understandings iu investigating those evidences, 
.such as they are. 

$2. So it appears: and I think we may assuredly con- 
clude that the same inward principle which, after a man is 
convinced ©1 the truth of Christianity, renders him obedient 
to its precepts, would (were he not thus convinced) infallibly 
set him about examining into the reality of Religion, upon 
its system aud evidence being offered to his thoughts; and 
that, in the iatter case, his examination would be made 
with an impartiality, seriousness, and solicitude proportioned 
to what his obedience would be in the former. 

The difficulties, indeed, in -which this evidence is ^souae 



( 3i ) 

apprehend) involved, is no more a just ground of complaint* 
than the external circumstances of temptation or difficulties 
of practice, which beset men in common life. These give 
occasion for a more attentive and improving exercise of the 
virtuous principle ; and speculative perplexities act in the 
very same way. For the evidence of Religion not appear- 
ing obvious is, to some persons, a temptation to reject it 
without any consideration at all ; and therefore requires 
such an exercise of the virtuous principle, as without such 
a temptation would have been wholly unnecessary. After 
It lias been hi some sort considered, likewise, the same 
obscurity affords opportunity to an unfair mind of explain- 
ing away and deceitfully hiding from itself that proof which 
it otherwise might perceive ; and also for men's encourage 
ing themselves in Vice from hopes of impunity, though they 
dearly see thus much at least, that such hopes are uncer- 
tain ; just as the common temptation to crimes and foflies* 
which end in temporal infamy and ruin, is the hope of not 
feeing detected ; i, e. the doubtfulness of the proof before- 
hand, that this criminal or foolish behaviour will have such 
an infamous or ruinous issue. Whereas the correct opera- 
tion of this supposed doubtfulness would be, to call for a 
more careful exercise of the virtuous principle, in fairly 
yielding to the proper influence of any real evidence, though, 
not conclusive ; and in practising conscientiously all virtue, 
though under some uncertainty whether the government of 
the Universe may not possibly be such as that vice shall 
escape with impunity. And, in general, temptation of 
every kind and degree, as it calls forth some moral efforts 
which would otherwise have been wanting, cannot but be 
an additional discipline and improvement of virtue, as wel 
as probation of it in the other senses of that word. So 
that the very same account is to be given, why the evidence 
of Religion should be left in such a manner as to require 
in sonle a solicitous (and, perhaps, painful) exercise of their 
Understandings about it; as why others should, after a fuH 
conviction of it's truth, be placed in such circumstances as 
that the practice of it's ordinary duties should require pains 
and solicitude : why it's apparent doubtfulness should 
afford matter of temptation to some, as why external diffi- 
culties and allurements should be permitted to afford 
matter of temptation to others. 



( 32 ) 

Pi I used to look upon the evidences of Christianity, as 
totally out of the reach of common understandings : but it 
now appears to me quite otherwise, if men would only be 
impartial in considering them. 

M. Yes : Surely even common men, were they but as 
much in earnest about Religion as -about their worldly 
concerns, are fully capable of being convinced that there is 
a God who governs Ihe world: there is also, undoubtedly, 
evidence sufficiently leVel to their comprehensions, of 
Miracles and of many apparent completions of Prophecy 
proving the truth of Christianity. This proof, indeed (as 
I have already admitted) is liable to objections, and may 
be refined into difficulties. Yet persons, who are capable 
of seeing these difficulties, are likewise capable of seeing 
through them ; r, e. not of clearing them up, in a way to 
satisfy their curiosity (for such knowledge is unattainable, 
with respect to any one thing in nature} but capable of 
seeing that the proof is not lost iu them, or destroyed by 
the objections upon which they are founded. 

P. I remember to have heard the evidences of Religion 
cavilled at upon this ground, viz. that if a Prince or a 
Master were to send directions to a servant, he would take 
care that they should always bear the certain indications 
whence they came ; and that their sense should be so plain, 
as to leave no possible doubt (if he could help it) concern- 
ing their authority, or their meaning. I see, in part, the 
fallacy of this: but you can, perhaps, expose it to me, Sir, 
still more fully. 

M. The proper answer to it seems to be, that we cannot 
argue from the imperfection of human precedents with 
respect to Him, who is the Governor of the World ; and 
that he does not, in fact (as we have seen) afford us such 
perfect information in our temporal affairs. But another 
and a very sufficient reply is suggested by the consideration, 
that Religion has peculiar regard to the motive, or princi- 
ple, upon which the Divine will is complied with : whereas, 
in the case referred to, the Prince or the Master, in order- 
ing a thing to be done, is not so much guided by that cir- 
cumstance as by his desire to have it done. Hence, he 
gives his directions plainly. Were he only disposed to 
exercise the loyalty or the understanding of his servant, he 
would probably choose to reader those directions more 
intricate or more obscure. 



( 33 ) 

P. t assure you, Sir, that all my doubts are completely 
removed ; and I hope ever to be grateful to you, more par- 
ticularly for the very clear light in which you have placed 
the credibility of the Evidences of Christianity. 

M. I am rejoiced to hear you say so ; especially with 
respect to the last topic, which beyond all others appears 
to me to involve objections, slight indeed in themselves, 
but yet peculiarly harassing to the human mind. To 
guard you still farther against them, allow me, before we 
separate, to repeal that — far from it's being the method of 
Providence in other cases to supply such overbearing evi- 
dence, as some require in proof of Christianity, the evi- 
dence upon which we are generally appointed to aci in 
ordinary matters is perpetually doubtful in a very high 
degree; that the information, which we need in these cases, 
is by no means given as of course, without any care or pains 
of our own ; and that, in judging of that information, we are 
liable to self-deceit from secret prejudices, and also to the 
deceptions of others. Yet this does not excuse our incredu- 
lity, or neglect, in any thing which concerns our worldly 
interests: much less will similar difficulties justify our in- 
attention, or u» belief, in respect of things which are pro- 
pounded to us for our eternal w elfare. Besides, the alleged 
doubtfulness of the Evidences of Christianity may be men's 
own fault ; or; if not, it may in part be accounted for in 
the same manner as trials and temptations with regard to 
practice. However, doubting in any sense implies a degree 
of evidence for that, of winch we doubt ; and this degree of 
evidence as really lays us under obligations, as demonstra* 
tive proof. 

If then there are persons in the world, who never set 
themselves in earnest to be informed in Religion, or who 
secietly wish it may not prove true; and who therefore are 
less attentive to evidence than to difficulties, and more to 
objections than to what can be said in answer to them — we 
need not wonder, that such persons should fail to discover 
the evidences of Religion, even though it were most cei- 
tainly true, and capable of being ever so fully proved, 



THE END. 



THE 

INTERNAL EVIDENCE 



ABRIDGED FROM 

Dr. PALEY and Mr. SOAME JENYNS, 



% the Rev. FRANCIS WRANGHAM* 



** Whence hath this man this wisdom ?" 

(Matt. xiii. 54.) 

\Only Fifty Copies on Demy Octavo.} 

1820. 



205449 
» 13 



AD VER TISEMENT. 



— - 

The subjoined Tract is founded principally upon Dr. Paley 7 & 
chapter* entitled, ' The Morality of the Gospel? and Mr, 
Soame Jenyns' c View of the Internal Evidence of the 
Christian Religion.' How little the writings of Dr. Paley 
are susceptible either of abridgement, extension, or supple- 
ment, those who have read them — and ivho has not read 
them, with delight and with conviction ? — well know. 
His commendation of Jenyns \ will, in the eye of most 
men, give to that Author abundant sanction; and, with 
it's limiting clauses, very justly so. Even Dr. Maclaine 
(late Minister of the English Church at the Hague, and 
Translator and Annotator of Mosheim's ' Ecclesiastical 
History' J in his Series of Letters addressed to Mr. Jl, 
not only gives him credit for being in earnest, but also 
commends his definitions, or rather descriptions, of the 
virtues that correspond with the great object and end 
of the Christian Religion, as judicious and sentimental : 
" They will force the assent of a good understanding; but 
their truth and excellence will be best comprehended by 
the feelings of a good heart." 

It ought here to be stated, however, that Dr. M. represents the 
general reasoning of Mr. J.'s work, as " neither close nor ac- 
curate ;" asserts, that " the illustrations run ivide of the prin- 
ciples, which they are designed to explain and enforce 
and pronounces it almost universally defective in " luminous 
order and philosophical precision." Under the strong 
and just reprehension of so high an authority, I have 
Chiefly confined my abstracts to what regards the Morality 
of the Gospel. 

Dr. M. says ; st what I call, and what are usually called, 
the ' Internal characters' of Christianity, that display 
it's excellence, and fin conjunction with Miracles) shoiu 
it's divinity, are — The rational and sublime represen- 
tations it gives of the Attribides in general, and particu- 
larly of the Goodness and Mercy of the Supreme Being; 

* See his Evidences of Christianity, II. 2. 

f " I would willingly, if the limits and nature of my work 
admitted of it, transcribe into this chapter the whale of what he has 
said tipon the Morality of the Gospel; because it perfectly agrees with 
my own opinion, and because it is impossible to say the same thing 
so well. This acute observer of human nature, and as I believe 
sincere convert to Christianity, &c. &c." 



4 



the suitableness of it's Declarations of grace, succOur, and 
immortality to the guilt, infirmity, and boundless desires 
of the human mind ; the purity and grandeur of ifg 
JMoral precepts, which are adapted to ennoble and im- 
prove human nature, and to lead it to true perfection and 
felicity ; and the motives, that it exhibits to enforce the 
practice of universal virtue" But a system ( as he else- 
were remarks) may be characterised by * greatness ; 
simplicity, utility, and importance may be 'honourable to 
the perfections of God, for any thing we know to the 
contrary ;* and by it's happy influence in inspiring hope? 
consolation, and humility, may * tend to the real improve- 
ment of human nature? and still, unaccompanied withvisible 
and extraordinary interpositions, may appear to many as 
not beyond the dictates of man's wisdom* To give to 
such a system the indubitable characters of a Divine 
Revelation, it is necessary to compare with those internal 
characters, of excellence and sublimity, the rank and 
capacity of the persons by whom it was promulgated, 
This totally changes the nature of the argument. Here 
the demonstration is complete. 
I had intended to avail myself of the late respectable Mr. 
Andrew Fuller's ' Gospel it's own Witness,' a work ex- 
hibiting the Purity and Harmony of the Christian Re- 
ligion ( contrasted with the Immorality and Absurdity of 
Deism J, as it reveals a God glorious in holiness, teaches 
us to devote ourselves to his service, supplies an enlarged 
and immaculate system of morality, furnishes the strong- 
est motives to practise it, and indeed has both powerfully 
influenced the lives of individuals, and given a tone like- 
wise to the morals of society, thus contributing to render 
both individuals and society happy : and farther, as it is 
strictly consistent with historic fact ( evinced by thefidfl- 
ment of prophecy J ; as it agrees with the dictates of an 
enlightened conscience, and the result of the closest obser- 
vation ; as it's spirit and stile prove it to harmonise with 
it's own professions ; and as it's doctrines of mediation 
and redemption are consistent with sober reason, and with 
the modern opinion of the magnitude of Creation — in all 
which respects, Deism is lamentably deficient. But such 
an addition woidd have swelled my Tract beyond it's pro- 
jected size: and many, perhaps, may think that, in 
conjunction with Paley and Jenyns, such an ally (however 
respectable J would have been superfluous. 

June 16, 1820, F. W. 



"PRE 

INTERNAL EVIDENCE 

OF 

CHRISTIANITY, &c 



A. HE Morality of the Gospel, considering from whom it 
came, must be admitted by all to be such as, without al- 
lowing reality to the pretensions of that Gospel, it is ex- 
tremely difficult, not to say impossible, to account for. 
No one, who has given it under this reference an impartial 
examination, will affect to regard it as the fruit of a re- 
ligion founded in folly, contrived by craft, or propagated 
through enthusiasm. The apparent son of a Jewish car- 
penter expires upon a cross. His followers, chiefly a few 
fishermen, remarkable for little (while he was with them 
upon earth) except striking ignorance, particularly in respect 
to his doctrine and intentions, record and publish the 
sublime truths committed to their charge with the most 
unexampled plainness and perseverance, and with the most 
extraordinary success ! It is in this circumstance, that the 
proof of a supernatural dispensation, as inferable from what 
is called the ' Internal Evidence* of the Gospel, consists. 
For this involves Divine Inspiration : Divine Inspiration is 
a Miracle ; and a Miracle is legitimate evidence, that the 
Doctrine which it accompanies is from God. 
Let us consider, then, 

I. The things taught; 

II. The manner of teaching. 

I. The former head, likewise, we may subdivide 
into two branches: as it comprehends, negatively, the 
omission of those qualities — for instance, Active Courage, 
Patriotism, and Friendship — which have usually engaged 
the admiration of mankind, and in their purer acceptation 
deserve to do so ; but which, as they are commonly un- 
derstood, have in their general effects been prejudicial 
to human happiness : while it positively urges upon us Poor- 
ness of Spirit, Forgiveness of Injuries, and Universal Charity; 
together with Repentance, Faith, Self-abasement, and a De- 
taching of ourselves from the world. 



6 



The First argument, drawn from the distinctive 
Morality of the New Testament, is The preference of 
the Patient to what is usually termed the Heroic 
character. 

There is a description of mankind — meek, yielding, and 
forgiving ; not prompt to act, but patient to suffer; silent and 
gentle under rudeness and insult, suing for reconciliation when 
others would demand satisfaction, giving way to the pushes 
of impudence, and indulgent to the prejudices and intrac- 
tability of those by whom they are surrounded. With the 
Founder of Christianity this description is the subject of 
his commendation, his precepts, and his example. Resist 
not evil ; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, 
turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at 
the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy clohe also. 
And luhosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go ivith him 
twain. — Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do 
good to them that hate you, and pray for them which 
de spitefully use you, and persecute you.* This shows, that 
no two things can be more different than the Patient and 
the Heroic character. Without objecting to the praises 
and honours bestowed upon the valiant (the least tribute, 
which can be paid by such as enjoy safety and affluence 
through the intervention of their dangers and sufferings) 
it may truly be asserted, that mere Active Courage can 
never be a Christian virtue, because Christianity has nothing 
to do with it. Passive Courage is, indeed, frequently in- 
culcated by this meek and suffering religion, under the 
titles of ' Patience' and ' Resignation.' And this is a real 
and substantial virtue, arising from the noblest dispositions 
of the human mind; from a contempt of misfortunes, pain, 
and death, and a confidence in the protection of the 
Almighty : whereas Active Courage too often springs from 
the meanest ; from passion, or vanity, or self-dependence. 
Passive Courage is generated by a zeal for truth, and per- 
severance in duty : Active is the child too generally of 
pride and revenge, and the parent of cruelty and injustice. 
In short, Passive Courage is the resolution of a philosopher, 
Active the ferocity of a savage. 

The state of the reasoning is as follows : — If this 
Christian character were universal, the world would be 
a society of friends and brothers ; whereas it's opposite, 
prevailing to the same extent, would produce a scene of 
universal contention. A generation of such men, indeed, 



* Matt. v. 39—42, 44. 



7 



could not subsist. If, as is the fact, this Christian charac- 
ter be partial, and a few only be actuated by it amongst 
a multitude who are not — still, in whatever degree it pre- 
vails, it prevents or allays or terminates quarrels, those 
great disturbers of human happiness and sources of human 
misery. Hence we find our Blessed Lord often correcting 
the ambition of his disciples ; admonishing them, that their 
greatness was to consist in humility, and censuring that 
love of distinction and greediness of superiority, which the 
chief persons among his countrymen were so apt to 



A Second argument, drawn from the distinctive Mo- 
rality of the New Testament, is The stress laid by our 
Saviour upon the Regulation of the Thoughts. The 
former related to the malicious passions : this refers to 
the voluptuous. Together, they comprehend the whole 
character. Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, mur- 
ther, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blas- 
phemies : these are the things, which defile a man. \ Mark, 
more particularly, that strong expression ; Whosoever looketh 
on a woman, to lust after her, hath committed adultery with 
her already in his heart. \ 

There can be no doubt with any reflecting mind, but 
that the propensities of our nature must be subject to re- 
gulation : the question is, where the check ought to be 
placed ; upon the thought, or only upon action. Christ, 
we see, peremptorily decides in favour of the former. Inter- 
nal purity, with him, is every thing. And assuredly a moral 
system, which prohibits action, but leaves the thoughts at 
liberty, will be ineffectual. Let us appeal to the judgement 
of persons, who appear to have given great attention to the 
subject, and to be well qualified to form a true opinion 
about it. Boerhaave, speaking of the very text last quoted, 
and understanding it (as we do) to lay the check upon the 
thoughts, was wont so say, that " Our Saviour knew man- 
kind better than Socrates." Haller, who in his 'Letters 
to his Daughter' has recorded this anecdote, adds to it 
the following remarks of his own : — " It did not escape 
the observation of Christ, that the rejection of evil thoughts 
was the best defence against vice. For when a debauched 
person fills his imagination with impure pictures, the li- 



* Matt, xxiii. 6—12. Matt. xii. 39. Luke xi. 43. xiv. 7— 
II. xx. 46. 

f Matt. xv. 19, 20. See, also, xxiii. 25, 27. \ Matt. v. 28. 




10 



day, as individuals, revenging the smallest affronts by pieuae- 
ditated murther, on principles of honour; and, in their 
national capacities, destroying each other with fire and 
sword for considerations of commercial interests, the 
balance of rival powers, the ambition of princes, or the 
madness of the people ? Do we not behold them with their 
last breath animating their followers to a savage vengeance, 
and in the agonies of death plunging their daggers into the 
hearts of their opponents ? And, what is still worse, do we 
not hear all these barbarities celebrated by historians, flat- 
tered by poets, applauded in theatres, approved in senates, 
and even sanctified in pulpits ? The important precept of 
Poorness or Spirit, the only disposition which can enable 
man to enjoy quiet here and happiness hereafter, was 
unknown, until it was promulgated by Him who said ; 
Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not ■: 
for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you t 
Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little 
child, he shall not enter therein.* 

Another precept, equally new and no less excellent, is 
Forgiveness of Injuries. Ye have heard that it hath been 
said, " Thou shall love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy 
But I say unto you, " Love your enemies, fyc." % Among 
the Heathens, the desire of revenge was represented, even 
by their wisest teachers, as the mark of a noble mind ; and 
it's accomplishment was deemed one of the chief felicities 
attendant on a fortunate man. Yet how much more 
magnanimous, and beneficial to mankind, is Forgiveness — 
more magnanimous, as it demands the exertion of every 
generous and exalted disposition, to enable us patiently 
to bear the wrongs of wickedness and folly as a part 
of the sufferings incident to a state of probation, and to 
regard their perpetrators with pity rather than indignation: 
and more beneficial to mankind, because such amiable con- 
duct alone can put an end to an eternal succession of 
injuries and retaliations, and by conquering the most invete- 
rate hearts leave us at last no enemies to forgive \ This 
noble virtue however, prior to the introduction of Christi- 
anity, was decried in principle as mean and ignominious, 
and in practice was no where to be discovered. 

A third precept, first injoined by the Gospel, is 
Universal Charity. Charity, saith St. Paul, suffereth 
long and is kind; Charity envieth not; Charity vaunteth 



* Mark x. 14, 15. 



II 



not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly,- 
seeheth not her own, is not easily provoked, thinkethno evil; 
rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth ; beareth all 
things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all 
things.* This amiable disposition is made the great charac- 
teristic of a Christian. Without the humility, patience, meek- 
ness, and benevolence, indeed, here ascribed to it, we must 
live in perpetual discord. And yet for the impressing of 
this we are indebted to the Gospel : A new commandment, 
said our blessed Saviour, I give xinto you, That ye love one 
another. By this shall all men know, that ye are my disciples\ 
— a commandment so sublime, so rational, and so beneficial, 
so wisely calculated to correct the depravity and abate the 
miseries of human nature, that did we universally comply 
with it, we should be effectually relieved from all the 
inquietudes arising either from our own unruly passions or 
from those of others. It would likewise, by the habits it 
must superinduce, so prepare our minds for the kingdom 
of heaven, that we should slide out of a life of peace and 
love into that celestial society by an almost imperceptible 
transition. Whereas the proud, the covetous, the ambi- 
tious, and the vindictive would find in those happy regions 
no room for the pursuit of their darling objects ; and must, 
therefore, be eternally excluded from them, not only as a 
punishment, but also on account of their incapacity. 

Hence Repentance is strenuously, and for the first 
time, insisted on by this religion, as being alone able in it's 
proper acceptation (viz. a change of the nature of the offen- 
der, which in the language of Scripture is called, being born 
again%) to purge us from our transgressions. Mere con- 
trition for past crimes, it must be obvious, can no more 
cleanse a mind corrupted by long continuance in vicious 
habits, than it can restore health to the body distempered by 
a protracted course of vice and intemperance. 

Faith, for which the philosophers of antiquity had not. 
even a correspondent term, is another moral duty taught by 
Christianity. This, in general, signifies a humble trust in 
God, and an unshaken confidence in his promises ; and, as 
applied particularly to the Gospel, a full belief that Christ 
was the Son of God, the Messiah foretold by the Prophets 
— commissioned by his Father to preach righteousness, and 
judgement, and everlasting life, and destined to die as an 
atonement for the sins of mankind. And in this the will is, 
to a certain degree, concerned. With the heart man believeth 



* 1 Cor. xiii. 4 — 7. f John xiii. 34, 35. f John iii. 3. 



12 



unto righteousness.* Daily experience, indeed, shoves trr 
that men not only pretend to believe, but actually do believe^ 
almost any propositions which suit their interests or inclina- 
tions, and unfeignedly change their sincere opinions with 
their situations and circumstances. For we have power over 
the eye of the mind, as well as that of the body, to close it 
against the strongest rays of truth, whenever they become 
painful to us ; and to open it again to the faint glimmerings of 
scepticism or infidelity, when we love darkness rather than 
light, because our deeds are evil.\ Thus', we see, Faith is 
not quite involuntary, or simply dependent on the degree of 
evidence offered to our understandings. 

Self -Abasement, also, is exclusively inculcated by 
the Gospel. This requires us to impute even our own 
virtues to the grace and favour of our Creator, and 
to acknowledge that we can do nothing through our own 
powers, unless assisted by his over-ruling influence. We 
are not sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of our' 
selves ; but our sufficiency is of God. ± A doctrine pro- 
ductive of so much humility, resignation, and dependence 
upon the Almighty, was of course not less repugnant to 
the pride of ancient Philosophy, than it is to that of 
modern Deism. 

Lastly, a Detaching of ourselves from the World 
is a moral virtue taught by the New Testament, and by 
the New Testament alone. By a ' detaching of ourselves 
from the world,' however, is not to be understood seclusion 
from society, relinquishing of business, or retirement to a 
cloister. Industry and cheerfulness are frequently recom- 
mended in that Divine Volume ; nor is the acquisition of 
wealth and honour prohibited, if they can be obtained with 
perfect honesty, and by a moderate degree of exertion. It 
is the unremitted anxiety, the application engrossing our 
whole time and thoughts, which are forbidden; because 
they are utterly incompatible with the spirit of the Gospel. 
If we toil on from day to day, and from year to year, in the 
vain pursuits and frivolous occupations of the world, and at 
last die in our harness — how can we expect, even should no 
gigantic crime stand in the way, to step immediately, with 
nothing but the gross feelings of earth about us, into the 
kingdom of heaven ? 

The favourite characters among the Pagans were the 
turbulent, the ambitious, and the intrepid, who through 



* Rom. x. 10. f John hi. 19. 12 Cor. iii. 5= 



18 



labours and clangers acquired wealth, and lavished it m 
luxury and corruption. Christianity, on the contrary, for- 
bids all extraordinary efforts to earn, and care to secure, 
and anxiety to enjoy it. hay not up for yourselves treasures 
upon earth. * Take no thought, saying, What shall we eat ? 
or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be 
clothed ? f 

Again ; the chief object of the Pagans was, immortal 
fame. For this their poets sang, their heroes fought, and 
their patriots died : and this was hung out by their philo- 
sophers and legislators, as the great incitement to noble 
deeds. What declares the Christian Legislator to his 
disciples upon this subject ? Blessed are ye, when men shall 
revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of 
evil against you falsely, for my sake. 

Thus, we perceive, the contrast between the Christian 
and all other institutions (religious or moral) prior to it's 
appearance, is abundantly evident ; and the infinite su- 
periority of the former is as little to be disputed — unless 
any one shall undertake to prove that Humility, Patience, 
Forgiveness, and Benevolence are less amiable and less 
beneficial qualities than Pride, Turbulence, Revenge, and 
Malignity; that the contempt or the charitable distribu- 
tion of riches is less honourable than the acquisition of 
them by fraud or violence, or the employing of them for 
purposes of avarice or profusion ; or, lastly, that a real 
immortality in the kingdom of heaven is an object less 
exalted, and less rational, than an imaginary immortality 
in the applause of our mis-judging and perishable fellow- 
creatures. 

Such a system of religion and morality, assuredly, 
could not have been the work of those ignorant persons, 
by whom it was actually published. It must, therefore, 
have been effected by the supernatural interposition of 
Divine Wisdom and Power — in other words, it must de- 
rive it's origin from God. 

This argument is founded on the very same reasoning, 
by which the material world is proved to be the work of 
his invisible hand. Whether we consider the minute bodies 
of animals, too small for perception, or the planetary orbs, 
too vast for imagination, we are certain that (as they cannot 
be the work of man) they must have proceeded from an 
omnipotent Creator. When we find a system of religion and 



Matt. vi. 19. 



f lb. 31. 



u 



morality infinitely superior to all ideas, which could nat'ite 
rally have occurred to the minds of it's preachers, we as 
necessarily form the same conclusion, 

II. Next to what our Saviour taught, may be con- 
sidered the peculiar manner of his teaching. His precepts., 
unaccompanied by arguments or limitations, were con- 
ceived in short emphatic sentences, in occasional reflex- 
ions, or in round maxims. This was exactly suitable to 
the, character which he assumed, and the situation in which 
as a teacher he was placed. Professing to be a messenger 
from God, he put the truth of what he taught upon au- 
thority. I say unto you, Swear not at all, &c. * With 
this view, the purpose to be consulted by him was, impres- 
sion ; a purpose, which nothing would be so likely to effect, 
as strong ponderous maxims frequently urged upon his 
hearers : As ye woidd that men should do to you, do ye also 
to them likewise, -j* Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with 
all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. — ■ 
And, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. J From the 
shortness likewise of our Lord's ministry, the numerous places 
and audiences which claimed his attention, and the per- 
secutions or popularity which occasionally abridged his 
visits, nothing appears to have been so practicable,' or likely 
to be so efficacious, as leaving, wherever he came, concise 
lessons of duty. To this mode of moral instruction it is 
incidental, that the rules will be conceived in absolute 
terms, leaving the needful applications and distinctions 
to those, to whom they were delivered. They would na- 
turally, also, be delivered in forcible expressions, as having 
to encounter general propensities. Many of them, like- 
wise, (Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn 
to him the other also, &c.§J though they appear in the 
form of specific precepts, are intended as descriptive of 
disposition and character. He, who should content him- 
self with waiting for the precise occasion, and literally ob- 
serving the rule when that occasion offered, would do 
nothing, or worse than nothing : but he who considers the 
character and disposition inculcated, and makes it a model 
for his own, takes perhaps the best possible method of 
improving the benevolence, and of calming and rectifying 
the evils, of his temper. 

Of the Parables too, of the New Testament many- 
would have done honour to any book in the world ; from 



* Matt. v. 34. See, also, 39, 44, &c. f Luke vi 31. 
\ Matt. xxii. 37, 39. § Matt. v. 39, 41. 



15 



the choice of the subjects, the structure of the narratives, 
the propriety and force of the circumstances woven into 
them, and, in some (e. g. the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal 
Son, and the Pharisee and the Publican) from an union 
of pathos and simplicity, which in the best productions of 
human genius is the fruit only of a much exercised and well- 
cultivated judgement. 

And the Lord's Prayer, for a succession of solemn 
thoughts, for fixing the attention upon a few great points, 
for suitableness to every condition, for sufficiency, for con- 
ciseness without obscurity, for the weight and real impor- 
tance of it's petitions — is without an equal, or a rival. 

Now, whence did all these 'come ? Was Jesus Christ, 
in fact, a well-instructed philosopher, whilst he is repre- 
sented to us as an illiterate peasant ? Or shall we say^ that 
some early converts of taste and education composed these 
pieces, and ascribed them to their principal ? Beside all 
other incredibilities in this account, it may be answer- 
ed (as Dr. Jortin has answered) that * they could not do it.* 
No specimens of composition, which the Christians of the 
first century have left us, authorise us to believe that 
they were equal to the task. And how little qualified 
the Jews, the countrymen and companions of Christ, were 
to assist him in the undertaking, may be inferred from their 
Talmuds and other writings nearest to that age. 

If the brevity of this Compendium admitted, we might 
(with Dr. Paley) consider our Lord's Discourses, also, in their 
negative character : 

As exhibiting no 'particular description of the invisible 
world ; whereas enthusiasm is wont to expatiate upon the 
condition of the departed, above all other subjects, with a 
wild particularity. The Koran of Mahomet is half made up 
of it : 

As injoining no austerities, with a view of entitling their 
practisers to a higher degree of divine favour : 

As expressing no impassioned devotion, no vehement or 
rapturous ejaculations, no violent urgency of prayer. 

As not encouraging the substitution of forwardness and 
fervency in his cause for the merit of regular morality:* 

As not falling in with any of the depraved f ashions of hh 
country, or with the natural bias of his own education : but 
on the contrary, under a religion entirely ceremonial, and 
amongst a people extremely tenacious of those ceremonies, 

* See Matt. vii. 21—23. 



16 



instituting a Dispensation with a shorter and simpler ritual 
than is to be found in any other religion whatever : 

As not introducing into his various apophthegms, many of 
them referring to precepts of the Jewish haw (the subject 
generally, among his countrymen, of the most puerile and 
quibbling expositions) a single example either of sophistry or 
false subtilty, or of any thing approaching thereunto : 

As not displaying any portion whatever of the national in- 
tolerance, narrow-mindedness, or excluding temper of the Jews. 
In the parable of the Good Samaritan,* the very point of 
the story is, that the person relieved was the national and 
religious enemy of his benefactor : 

And, lastly, as completely abstracted from all views either 
of ecclesiastical or of civil polity.-^ With respect, indeed, 
to discussions concerning different forms of government, 
Christianity declines every question upon the subject. It is 
alike applicable, useful, and friendly to them all ; 

Tending to make men virtuous, and it being easier to 
govern good men than bad men under any constitution ; 

Stating obedience to government, in ordinary cases, 
to be not merely a submission to force, but a duty of con- 
science ; 

Inducing dispositions favourable to public tranquil- 
lity ; and, 

Praying for communities, and for the governors of 
communities, of every description, with a fervency propor- 
tioned to the influence which they possess upon human 
happiness. 

When, therefore, we consider either what Christ taught 
or what he did not teach, either the substance or the man- 
ner of his discourses ; his preference of solid to popular 
virtues, of a character which is commonly despised to a cha- 
racter which is universally extolled ; his placing, with respect 
to our licentious vices, the check in the right place, viz. upon 
the thoughts ; his collecting of human duty into two well- 
devised rules, his repetition of these rules, the stress he 
laid upon them (especially in comparison with positive 
duties), fixing thereby the sentiments of his followers ; and 
his exclusion of all regard to reputation in our devotion and 
our alms, and by parity of reason, in our other virtues : when 
we consider, that his instructions were delivered in a form 
calculated for impression, the precise purpose in his situa- 
tion to be consulted; and that they were illustrated by 



* Luke x. 30—37. See, also, Matt. viii. 11. Luke ix. 55. 
t See John xviii. 36. Matt xxii. 21. Luke xii. 14. J ohn viii. 1 1> 



17 



parables, the choice and structure of which would have 
been admired in any composition whatever : when we ob- 
serve him free from the usual symptoms of enthusiasm, 
a wild particularity in the description of a future state, 
austerity in his institutions, and heat and vehemence in 
his devotion ; not compromising, in favour of ostensible 
fervency of profession, the interests of morality; free, also, 
from the peculiar imperfections and depravities of his age 
and country ; amidst a race of teachers the most frivolous 
and sophistical, totally free from sophistry and frivolity; 
and candid and liberal in his judgement of the rest of 
mankind, though of a nation singularly prone to unchari- 
tableness and self-partiality: (lastly) when we find, in his 
religion, no scheme of building up a hierarchy, or of 
ministering to the views of human governments — we cannot 
but acknowledge the probity of those to whom it owes it's 
origin, and deem some regard due to their testimony, when 
they affirm that c it proceeded from God ;' appealing at 
the same time, for the truth of their assertion, to miracles 
which they themselves had wrought, or had witnessed. 

The Character of Christ is a part of the Morality of 
the Gospel. Upon this it may, first, be observed, that 
neither as represented by his followers, nor as attacked 
by his enemies, is he ever charged with any personal vice. 
This faultlessness is more peculiar, than we are apt to 
imagine. Some stain pollutes the morals, or the morality, 
of almost every other teacher and lawgiver. One loose 
principle is found in nearly all the Pagan writings, par- 
ticularly in those of Plato, Xenophon, Cicero, Seneca, and 
Epictetus ; and that is, recommending to their disciples 
a compliance with the religious rites of the countries, which 
they visited. Mahomet's licentious transgression of his own 
licentious rules, with his asserted permission from heaven 
of unlimited sensuality, is confessed by every writer of the 
Moslem story. 

Secondly, in the histories which are left us of Jesus 
Christ, although very short and not dealing in panegyric, 
we perceive traces of an extraordinary spirit of devotion, 
of the greatest zeal and fortitude, of unparallelled prudence, 
of singular deadness to the things of the world, of the 
utmost benignity, and of perfect humility, meekness, and 
patience. I say, ( traces' of these qualities ; because the 
qualities themselves are to be collected from incidents, no 
formal character of him being drawn in any part of the 
New Testament 



18 



Thus we see the devoutness of his mind in hi6 being 
•engaged among the Doctors in the Temple, at twelve years 
of age, in his father's business, (a) to whom he invariably 
referred every thing connected with his mission — his doc- 
trine, miracles, &c; in his frequently retiring to solitary 
prayer ; (b) in his habitual giving of thanks ; (c) in his 
ascribing the beauties and operations of Nature to the 
bounty of Providence ; (d) in his earnest addresses to his 
Father, more especially that solemn one before the raising 
of Lazarus from the dead ; (e) and in the deep piety of 
•his behaviour in the garden, on the last evening of his 
life.(/) 

His zeal and fobtitude we discover in his being 
•constantly in action, ever teaching or waiting opportunities 
to teach (so that it appears to have been, almost without 
a metaphor, his meat to do the will of Him that sent him (g) ) ; 
and in his undauntedly reproving those rulers, who always 
had his life in their hands. 

We -discern his prudence in his selecting the most ap* 
propriate seasons, stopping at the best points, and pressing 
his doctrines as the hearers were able to bear ; (h) but still 
more particularly, where prudence is most wanted, in his 
conduct upon trying occasions, and in his answer to 
artful questions — for instance, in his withdrawing frequent- 
ly from the first symptoms of tumult, (i) with the ex- 
press care of carrying on his ministry in quietness; in the 
difficulty concerning the interfering relations of a future 
state, {k) and in the case in which he was required to 
give an explanation of the authority by which he acted (I) — 
to say nothing of other examples, already adduced. 

His deadness to the things of the world is in- 
ferable from the account of the Temptation, {m) from his 
conduct at feasts (which he attended for the purpose of 
teaching), and from his having wrought no miracle for 
himself during a life of privacy and poverty, of contradiction 
and reproach. 

We perceive his benignity, and affection aten ess of 
temper, in his kindness to children ; (n) in the tears which 
he shed over his falling country, (o) and upon the death of 



(a) Luke ii. 49. (b) Matt. xiv. 23. ; xxvi. 36, &c. (c) Matt, 
xi. 25. Mark viii. 6. Luke xxii. 17. John vi. 23. (d) Matt. vi. 
26, 28. (e) John xi. 41. (/) Matt. xxti. 36—46. (g) John iv. 
34. (//) Mark iv. 33. (i) Matt. xiv. 22. Luke v. 16. John v. 
13. ; vi. 15. (£) John viii. 11. (I) Matt. xxi. 23—27. See, also, 
Matt xxii. 16—21. 23—32. and Luke xii. 14. (m) Matt iv. 1—11. 
(n) Mark x. 16. (o) Luke six. 41. , 



19 



liis friend, (a) &c. ; in his noticing of the widow's mite, {b) 
and in various parables, of which none but one of the moss 
compassionate of natures could have been the author. 

His humility we trace in his making himself of no 
reputation, (c) in his washing the disciples' feet,(d) and in 
his constant reprehension of their weak ambition. 

Lastly, His meekness and patience appear in his re- 
buke of their forward zeal at the Samaritan village, (e) in his 
expostulation with Pilate, (f) and in his prayer for his 
enemies at the moment of his suffering, (g) which (though it 
has been, in later times, frequently imitated) was then new. 

His lessons likewise touch, and that often by very 
affecting representations, upon some of the most interesting 
topics of human duty and of human meditation — upon the 
principles, by which the decisions of the Last Day will be 
regulated ; (fa) upon the supreme importance of religion ; (i) 
upon penitence, (&) self-denial, (/) watchfulness, (m) placa- 
bility, \n) confidence in God,(o) the value of spiritual (that 
is, mental) worship, (p) the necessity of moral obedience, 
and the directing of that obedience to the principle of the 
law, instead of seeking for evasions in a technical construc- 
tion of it's terms, (q) 

We may also add, that the Character of Jesus Christ 
is infinitely exalted by the union of virtues which it displays, 
not only in assemblage, but in harmony with each other. 
Sometimes dignified and authoritative, and sometimes meek 
and humble, but not admitting in his intrepidity the slightest 
tincture of fierceness or arrogance, or with his mildness com- 
bining any portion of apathy or timidity; uniting compas- 
sion to sinners with hatred of sin, exquisite sensibility with 
an entire command of his feelings, the purest spirituality 
with the greatest regard to the wants and circumstances of 
his hearers, an absolute superiority to the world with an 
universal submission to the civil and ecclesiastical authorities 
of his country — he assuredly spake as never man spake, (r) 
and acted as never man acted. 

In short, never was a character (as Archbishop 
Newcome observes) " at the same time so commanding and 
natural, so resplendent and pleasing, so amiable and 

(«) John xi. 35. (6) Mark xii. 42—44. (c) Phil. ii. 7. (d) John 
xiil. 5. (e) Luke ix. 55. (/) John xix. 11. (g) Luke xxiii. 34. 
(/*) Matt. xxv. 31—46. (i) Matt. vi. 33. Mark viii. 35. Luke 



xxv. 13. Mark xiii. 33—37. (n) Matt, xviii. 33. Luke xvii. 4. 
(o) Matt. vi. 25—30. (p) John iv. 23, 24. ( ? ) Matt. v. 27, &c 
(r) John vii. 46, 




(/) Matt. 29, 30. (w ) Matt. xxiv. 42 ; 



m 

venerable, as that of Christ. There is a peculiar contrast 
in it between an aweful dignity and majesty, and the most 
engaging loveliness, tenderness, and softness. He now* 
converses with prophets, lawgivers, and angels ,• and, the 
next instant, he meekly endures the dullness of his disciples, 
and the blasphemies and rage of the multitude. He now 
calls himself greater* than Solomon, one who can command 
legions of angels, the giver of life to whomsoever he will, 
the Son of God who shall sit on his glorious throne 
to judge the world ; at other times we see him embracing^ 
young children, not lifting up his voice in the streets, not 
breaking the bruised reed nor quenching the smoking flax, 
calling his disciples not servants but friends and brethren, and 
comforting them with an exuberant and parental affection. 
Let us pause an instant, and fill our minds with the idea of 
One who knew all things heavenly and earthly, searched 
and laid open the inmost recesses of the heart, rectified 
every prejudice and removed every mistake of a moral and 
religious kind ; by a word exercised sovereignty over all 
Nature, penetrated the hidden events of futurity, gave 
promises of admission into a happy immortality, had the* 
keys of life and death, claimed an union with the Father;- 
and yet was pious, mild, gentle, humble, affable, social,, 
benevolent, friendly, affectionate. Such a character is fairer 
than the morning-star. Each separate virtue is mad stronger- 
By opposition and contrast ; and the union of so many virtues 
forms a brightness which fitly represents the glory of that 
God who is invisible, who dwelleth in the light which no man 
can approach unto, whom no man hath seen nor can see." * 

If we extend our argument to other parts of the New 
Testament, we may offer as among the best rules of life (or, 
which is the same thing, descriptions of virtue) that have 
ever been delivered, the following passages : — Pure religion 
and ttndeftled before God and the Father is this, to visit the 
fatherless arid widows in their affliction, and to keep himself 
unspotted from the world. -\ — Now the end of the command' 
ment is charity out of a- pure heart, and of a good conscience, 
arid of faith unfeigned. 1 For the grace of God that bringeth 

* And yet, by a gross deception, under the mask of the ve- 
nerable name of Archbishop Newcome have the modern Socinians 
tmblushingly attempted to obtrude their garbled and falsified Gos- 
pel upon the world : though it is known to real scholars, that one 
of the effects of a 'New and Improved Version' of the Holy 
Volume would be, to furnish several additional and incontrover-r 
fcible texts in favour of the Divinity of Jesus Christ. 

f, James i. 27. \ 1 Tim. i. 5* 



21 



salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying 
ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righ- 
teously, and godly in this present world. * 

Lastly, the whole volume is replete with piety, with 
(what were almost unknown to heathen moralists) devo- 
tional virtues ; the most profound veneration of the Deity, 
an habitual sense of his bounty and protection, a firm con- 
fidence in the final result of his councils and dispensations, 
and a disposition to resort upon all occasions for the supply 
of human wants, for assistance in danger, for relief from 
pain, for the pardon of sin to his rich and over-flowing 
mercy. 

And what shall we say of the propagation of Christia- 
nity ? It is well known, that in the course of a very few 
years, this religion was spread over all the principal parts of 
Asia and of Europe, by the ministry of only a few hum- 
ble missionaries; that paganism was then in the highest 
repute, believed by the vulgar and supported by the great, 
the wisest men of the wisest nations assisting at it's sa- 
crifices and consulting it's oracles ; and that, on the preach- 
ing of these few humble missionaries, it's altars were 
deserted, and it's deities became dumb. Now no man can 
possibly believe, that from an imposture the most wicked and 
blasphemous (for, if an imposture, such Christianity is) all the 
religion and virtue, at present existing on earth, derive their 
origin. 

If, however, any man can believe that, when the 
literature of Greece and Rome — then in their meridian 
lustre — were insufficient for the task, the son of a carpenter 
with twelve unlettered associates, unassisted by any super- 
natural power, had been able to invent a system of theology 
the most sublime and ethics the most perfect, which had 
escaped the penetration and the learning of Plato and 
Aristotle and Cicero ; and that this system, through their 
marvellous sagacity, excluded every false virtue, though 
universally admired, and admitted every true virtue, how- 
ever despised and ridiculed : if any one can believe, that 
these men became impostors for no other purpose than the 
promulgation of truth, villains in order to inculcate honesty, 
and martyrs without the remotest prospect of earthly honour 
or advantage ; and that, independently of all heavenly co- 
operation, they diffused this their system over the greatest 
portion of the then known world, in opposition to the 



Tit. ii. 11, 12. 



22 



interests, pleasures, prejudices, and ambition of mankind; 
triumphing over power, intrigue, custom, zeal, influence, 
rhetoric, and philosophy, all leagued against it's reception— 
If any one can believe these miraculous events, contra- 
dictory as they are to constant experience, he must be 
possessed of much more faith than is necessary to make him 
a Christian, and remains an infidel from mere credulity. 

Even should these credulous infidels after all be in the 
right, yet from believing this asserted revelation what harm 
can ensue ? Would it render princes more t3'rannieal, or 
subjects more ungovernable ; the rich more insolent, or the 
poor more disorderly ? Would it make worse parents or 
children, husbands or wives, masters or servants, friends or 
neighbours? Would it not rather render men more virtuous, 
and consequently more happy, in every situation ? Such belief 
would not be criminal; because it cannot be a crime to 
assent to evidence which has been able to convince the best 
and wisest of mankind, and which surely it would be more 
meritorious to admit from a disposition of charity, than to 
reject out of obstinacy and self-conceit. Neither could such 
belief be detrimental; because, even if Christianity be a 
fable, it is a fable, the influence of which is the only prin- 
ciple capable of retaining men in an uniform course of virtue 
and piety, and of supporting them in the hour of distress, of 
sickness, and of death. 

Alas ! the most insurmountable, as well as the most 
usual obstacle to our belief, arises from our passions and our 
appetites : for faith being (as above observed) not less an act 
of the will, than of the understanding, we oftener disbelieve 
for want of inclination than want of evidence. That the 
authority of Revelation should be well founded, is certainly 
for the interest of good men ; and, still more so, for that of 
the bad, because it is the only system which can give them 
any assurance of pardon. If any one by profligacy or extra- 
vagance contracts a debt, repentance may hinder him from 
increasing it, but can never pay it off" for him. He will still 
continue to be accountable for it, unless it be discharged by 
himself, or by some other in his stead. This very discharge 
Christianity holds forth on our repentance. It is, there- 
fore, well worth every man's while to believe Christianity, 
if he can ; as he will find it the surest preservative against all 
vicious habits and their attendant evils, under distresses and 
disappointments the best resource, and at all times the 
firmest basis on which contemplation, an act so essential 
to the constitution of the human mind, can repose. 

Finally : let it be remembered that . even in inathet- 



23 



niaties there are many propositions, which though on a 
■cursory view they appear to the most acute understandings, 
uninstructed in that science, to be certainly false, are found 
on a closer scrutiny to be capable of the strictest demon- 
stration ; and that therefore it is at least as possible, with 
respect to the Christian Religion, for them to be mistaken, 
who have made few and snperficial inquiries into the 
subject, as for those great masters of reason and erudition 
— Bacon, Newton, Milton, Hale, Locke, and Boyle to 
have been deceived in their belief : a belief, to which they 
inflexibly adhered after the most diligent researches into the 
authenticity of it's records, the completion of it's prophecies, 
the sublimity of it's doctrines, the purity of it's precepts, and 
the subtilty and sophistry of it's adversaries; and which they 
have testified to the world by their writings, without any 
other motive than their regard for truth and the benefit of 
mankind. 

Should the few foregoing pages be so fortunate, as to 
persuade any unhappy sceptic to place some confidence in 
these great opinions, and to distrust his own ; to convince 
him, that Christianity may not be altogether artifice and 
^rror ; and to prevail upon him to examine, before he rejects 
it — their purpose will be abundantly answered, and their 
compiler will have the satisfaction of reflecting that he has 
aot lived in vain* 



INWARD WITNESS 

TO 

ABRIDGED FROM 

DR. WATTS' 

THREE SERMONS 

UPON THAT SUBJECT. 

By the Rev. FRANCIS WRANGHAM. 

<* He that believeth on the Son of God, hath the witness in himself." 

(1 John, v. 10.) 



[Only Fifty Copies on Demy Octavo.] 

1820. 



205449 
.'13 



AD VERTISEMENT, 



— — 

The following Tract is obviously, from ifs very nature? 
addressed to Believers. But is it too much to entertain 
a fear that, through the nicked industry with which 
Deism has recently circulated her obsolete quibbles and 
her stale jests, doubts may have bee occasionally excited 
in the breasts even of the pious and the good These 
doubts, though probably transient in their duration and 
slight in their effects, it is surely desirable ivholly, and 
for ever, to efface. At all events, we know where it 
is written: precept upon precept, precept upon pre- 
cept; line upon line, line upon line ; here a little, and 
there a little; and who can tell whether, under the 
blessing of the Almighty, this delightful picture of peace 
and joy, reflected from the bosom of the sincere Christian, 
may not in a blessed moment ivoo the eye and win the 
heart of some unhappy person, whom Infidelity has long 
kept a stranger to both one and the other J 

Dr. Watts, who was born in 1674, underwent in 1712 a violent 
attack of fever, which so shattered his frame, that he was 
obliged to intermit his ministerial labours among the 
Dissenters for four years. In consequence of this, Sir 
Thomas Abney generously Look him to his own home; 
tvhere, under his care and that of his excellent lady, he 
was supplied with every comfort. Under that hospituble 
roof he spent the remaining thirty-six years of his life: and 
it would be difficult ( says Dr. Aikin ) to produce an 
instance of a connexion of friendship between literature 
and opulence so long, so intimate, so free from am/ dis- 
cordant or unpl easing feelings, and in which the relations 
of patron and dependent were so thoroughly obliterated 
by the perception of reciprocal benefits. Such, indeed, 
was the gentleness and candour of Dr. Watts nature, 
disarming him of all polemic rigour, that Dr. Johnson 
himself could not but admire his " meekness of opposition 
and his mildness of censure." 

It has been asserted that, 1 toward the close of life, he changed 
his ojnnious concerning the Trinity, Bui, estimated by 
his works (from which, as the above respectable Bio- 



4 



grapher justly observes, and not from unauthorised 
reports, a writer's sentiments are to be ascertained J, he 
must certainly rank among the decided advoeates of 
orthodoxy. To whatever class he belongs, he must 
always be regarded as one of those, whose whole heart- 
was devoted to the promotion of the best interests of 
manJdnd, and whose life would have done honour to any 
system of opinions, 

F. IV. 

April 25, 1820 



THE 

INWARD WITNESS 

TO 

CHRISTIANITY, &c. 



1 HjERE are two points of the greatest importance pro- 
posed for the investigation of mankind : 

1 . Whether the religion offered to their acceptance be 
divine; and, 

2. Whether they have so far complied with it's rules, 
as to be entitled to hope for it's blessings. 

Nursed up however, as we have been* from our child- 
hood in the forms of Christianity, we too generally take the 
first of these points for granted : and assuredly, strongly as 
it demands the attention of all who have leisure for the 
investigation, the principal concern of the unlearned is with 
the second. 

But in the primitive ages of this Dispensation, it was 
far otherwise. The Gospel, at that time, was imperfectly 
established: and it's disciples, seeing it opposed by the 
world at large, might occasionally waver in their belief of 
it's truth. It was their duty, therefore, carefully to examine, 
whether it came from God or not. And, with a view to 
this duty, St, John observes ; He, that believeth on the Son 
of God, hath the witness in himself. The divinity of the 
Christian Religion has, indeed, an inward attestation in the 
heart of every true believer. 

That men should be Christians merely on the ground, 
upon which Turks are Mahometans, because they are born so, 
is a wretched foundation for the hope of heavenly glory. The 
times are full of peril ; and how will any one be able to stand, 
who has no firmer a footing ? Infidelity is a growing weed. 
The neglect, if not contempt, of Revealed Religion is spread- 
ing in many parts of the world : and, if he is not furnished 
with some more satisfactory evidences of it's truth, he may 
be in danger of surrendering his faith to a quibble or a jest. 
Nay, suppose he thinks that he has complied with it's rules, 
and has raised his expectations to a high degree ; if the 
Tempter in a melancholy hour should assault him with some 



6 



such bold questions as these; " How do you know that your 
Religion is true ? What tokens have you to show r that it 
came from God ?" and he has nothing else to allege in 
reply, but that ' it is the Religion in which he was educated, 
and which his forefathers have for many centuries pro- 
fessed :' how might the insufficiency of the answer surprise 
and alarm even his own mind, when he began seriously to 
reflect upon it ! I will briefly, therefore, stare a few of the 
chief external proofs of Christianity, as introductory to that 
which is referred to by St. John. 

Many are the testimonies of this description, which 
God has given to the Gospel. If we trace the life of 
Christ from his manger to his cross, we shall observe the 
rays of divinity still shining round his doctrine and his 
works, and proving him to have been commissioned from on 
high. At his birth, Angels appeared in brightness, and a 
strange new Star was his witness in heaven. On earth, the 
Wise Men of the East were his witnesses, when they -jt>w- 
senied gold, and frankincense, and myrrh* to the God, the 
King of Israel. Simeon and Anna, in the Temple, wit- 
nessed to the holy child Jesus. The Doctors, with whom 
he disputed when only twelve years old, were witnesses that 
there was in him something more than man. At his bap- 
tism, the Father and the Spirit witnessed that this was He. 
the Messiah. His whole life was a life of marvels. Every 
blind eye that he opened saw, and declared, his power. The 
very dead came from the land of silence, to bear testimony 
in his favour. The Devils themselves confessed, that he was 
the Holy One of God. f Miracles attended him to the grave : 
the grave itself was opened for his release by a miracle ; and 
his salvation was afterward published by his followers, God 
himself bearing them icitness with signs and ivonders.% 

All these, however, were still but outward witnesses, 
There is one of an inward nature, belonging to every sin- 
cere Christian. He, that believeth on the Son of God, hath 
the witness in himself . This passage involves a threefold in- 
quiry : 

I. What believing on the Son of God means; 

II. What the inward witness is, which Faith gives to 
Christianity ; and, 

III. In what respects it exceeds all other testimonies. 
I. Believing on the Son of God means, believing Jesus 

Christ to be the Messiah (or, Saviour of the world) fore- 
told by the prophecies and prefigured by the types of the 



IMatt. ii. 11. f Marki. 24. ± Heb. ii. 4. 



7 



Old Testament, and trusting in him in that character. 
This includes a belief, with respect to his Person, that he 
is both true God and true man— that eternal Word, which 
in the beginning was with God and was God, {a) but in due 
time was made flesh and dwelt among us; (6) and. with re- 
gard to his Doctrine, that we are all sinners, and as such con- 
demned by the divine law to eternal death : that, from the 
strictness of this law, no man with his natural infirmity can 
fulfil it, nor from the rigour of it, escape it's condemnation : 
that therefore Christ came down from heaven, not only 
to perform it's duties by an active obedience, but also to 
subject himself to it's penalties for our sakes; in order 
that we, who were under the law, might be redeemed from 
ifs curse, and might receive a blessing : (<?) that he, accordingly, 
was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our 
justification : (d) that but for his purifying influences, we 
could have no hope of heaven, for without holiyiess no man 
shall see the Lord ; (e) and that he shall raise the dead, and 
finally judge and sentence all men according to their works. 

But this is not all, that we are required to believe : 
for this belief, perhaps, Simon Magus the Sorcerer had, 
though he was in the gall of bitterness and in the bond 
of iniquity, (f) The faith of the true Christian is more 
than a bare assent to the great truths of the Gospel : 
it is such as overcomes the world, gains the victory over 
things sensual and over Satan, and evinces it's possessor 
to be born of God. (g) It, therefore, farther implies a 
trusting of our souls into the hands of Christ : so that we 
may be able to affirm with St. Paul ; I know whom I have 
believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which 
I have committed unto him against that day. (h) When the 
sinner from a dread of eternal death, with a conviction of 
his inability to effect his escape, applies unto the Saviour ; 
desirous to be sanctified by the grace that is from above, 
because he perceives the necessity of holiness, and yet feels 
himself incapable of attaining it by his own exertions : when, 
in fine, he is satisfied that though he is to strive to enter in at 
the strait gale (i) as earnestly as if his success wholly depended 
upon his unassisted efforts, he is still to pronounce himself, 
after a life of incessant pietj , an unprofitable servant, who has 
only done that which was his duly to do (k) ; then is he a true 
believer (in the correct gospel-sense of the word) on the Son 



(a) John i. 1. (b) i. 4. (c) Gal. iii. 13, 14. (rf) Rom. iv. 25. 
(e) Heb. xii. 14. ( f) Acts viii. 23. (g) 1 John iv. 4, 5. (/<) 2 Tim. 
i. 12. (i) Luke xi'ii. 24. (k) Luke xvii. 10. 



8 



of God, and has the witness in himself that his religion Is 
divine. 

II. But what is this inward witness, which Faith gives 
to Christianity? 

On the original promulgation of the Gospel, many were 
overpowered with present miracles, convincing them by 
irresistible evidence that He, who wrought them, was the 
Messiah. Such for instance, among others, was the 
Conversion of St. Paul. Examples, however, of this des- 
cription, though wisely adapted to the infancy of the New 
Religion, are not to be expected in it's maturity. 

In attempting to explain the passage above-quoted from 
St. John, some persons have bewildered themselves in the 
land of blind enthusiasm, that region of clouds and dark- 
ness which pretends forsooth to divine light ! But the 
Apostle is not speaking of irrational and supernatural im- 
pulses. Christianity has a better testimony than these, 
which belongs to all true believers, and can approve itself to 
the reason of all. This is the record, thai God hath given to 
us eternal life ; and this life is in his Son. * Let us examine 
therefore, what Eternal Life is, how far it is actually found in 
believers, and how it becomes a witness of Christianity in 
their breasts. 

Eternal Life consists in Happiness and Holiness, two 
things so necessarily connected, that they invariably run 
into one another. 

I. Happiness implies — the Pardon of Sin, the special 
Favour of God, and the Pleasure arising from the regular 
operation of all our powers and passions. 

1 . From the Pardon of Sin arises peace of Conscience. 
This is a part of heaven ; and in heaven it exists in full per- 
fection. When the sinner may humbly hope that his 
transgressions are blotted out, f he has then a part of final 
blessedness, a beginning of eternal life. And this is, in some 
measure, felt by every true believer. The hope, that the 
Deity is reconciled to him by the mediation of a Redeemer, 
belongs exclusively to Christianity, and satisfactorily 
establishes it's truth. Therefore, being justified by faith 
(saith the Apostle) we have peace with God. % Other 
Religions, which have been drawn from the remains of the 
light of nature, or invented by the fears or folly and propaga- 
ted by the craft or superstition of minkind, are here all at a 
loss, and cannot speak solid comfort to the soul. 

Neither the Priests nor the Philosophers of the 



* 1 John v. 11. f Isaiah xxiii. 25 \ Rom. v. 1. 



9 



Heathen world were able to state, ' Whether God would 
pardon sin at all, or not.' The Light of Nature would, in- 
deed, exhibit that great Being as essentially gracious and 
compassionate : but whether or not he would be so to sinners, 
it could never determine. The Son of God alone, who came 
down from the bosom of his Father, could inform us how his 
heart was affected toward us. 

■ Again ; the Light of Nature could not apprise us, * How 
often God would pardon sinners.' Could we even, by it's 
faint glimmerings, have discovered that he would forgive 
offences, we could never have inferred how many times he 
would forgive them. Who indeed, except a divine mes- 
senger, could communicate unto us this ? 

Farther ; the Light of Nature would be incapable of 
ascertaining, * How great the offences were, that could be 
pardoned.' It could not assure us, that rebellion of the 
deepest aggravations should meet with forgiveness upon the 
gospel-conditions. 

Once more ; Reason and Natural Religion could never 
teaeh its, * Upon what terms God would pardon :' that we 
must confess, and forsake, our sins* in order to find mercy; 
that we must trust in the sufferings, and depend upon 
the merits, of another; and that there is none other name 
under heaven given among men, except that of Jesus, where- 
by we must be saved. -j* 

Finally : Religions invented by man could not show 
us, ' Upon what grounds we might expect pardon : for 
they knew nothing of an atonement proportioned to our 
offences. They taught their votaries indeed, by the stings 
of an uneasy conscience, that there was an offended Deity ; 
and blood overflowed their altars, wounds self-inflicted 
scarified their flesh, and wine and oil deluged their temples 
— but all without reasonable hope. The Jewish Religion, 
it is true, as framed by God himself, comprehended in it 
the way of obtaining forgiveness : but it was a way dark- 
ened by types and shadows, and could therefore never 
make the comers thereunto perfect. % The blood of bulls and 
goats, they must have been convinced, could not effec- 
tually cancel transgression ; and they discerned but faintly 
the all-sufficient sacrifice of the Saviour in their daily 
ritual. Containing only dim and obscure notices of the 
great Anti-type, though it might cleanse the soul before 
God, it could not generally disburthen their consciences 
from the sense of defilement. Of the Socinians then of 



* Prov. xxviii. 13. f Acts iv. 12. J lleb. x. I. 



10 



modern times, who denying the proper satisfaction of Christ 
have nothing to trust to but the Divine Mercy, how frail 
must he the reliance ! While to a repentant sinner, who 
fully believes on the Son of God, the Gospel offers peace 
and rest. He trusts to it, with humble confidence, for 
salvation ; for he has the witness in himself, that it is divine. 

2. The happiness of Eternal Life consists, farther, in 
the special Favour of God, which is quite distinct from 
the pardon of sin; as it is very possible for a criminal to 
be pardoned, without being made a favourite. This favour, 
and a sense of it (called in Scripture, the ' seeing of God') 
form, presumptively, a considerable part of the joy of heaven. 
When the soul is completely possessed of divine love, and 
knows that it will continue for ever — that is Eternal Life : 
ami that too is enjoyed, in some measure, by every true 
believer. 

But to such a conclusion the Light of Nature could 
never have led us : for that the pardoned rebel should 
become a favoured son, is not a result of natural experience. 
To the Gospel alone it belonged to state, that Christ has 
not only made an end of sins, but also brought in ever- 
lasting righteousness ; * and purchased for us the blessings 
of his Father's love, as well as an exemption from his 
wrath. If, token we were enemies, we were reconciled to 
God by the death of his Son ; much more, being reconciled, 
tve shall be saved by his life.f Many are the instances of 
persons, who without any enthusiasm or self-delusion have 
had this joyful perception of the divine favour shed abroad 
jn their souls, far exceeding whatever comfort any other 
jaith could affect to bestow. 

Nor can any merely human religion pretend to declare, 
how this special favour of God is to be attained, or how long 
it shall continue : whereas the Gospel gives us full assurance 
that sinners, applying to the Saviour in the way of humble 
faith and hearty repentance, shall not only be released 
from guilt and it's punishment, but also be beloved of the 
Father, and that everlastingly. Repent and be converted, 
that your sins may be blotted out. J Believe in the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. § Such is the uniform 
language of the New Testament. 

5. The happiness of Eternal Life consists, lastly, in the 
Pleasure arising from the regular operation of all our 
powers and passions. This was, undoubtedly, a great part 
of the happiness of Adam, the man of innocence. Pre- 



* 1 Dan. ix. 24. f Rom. v. 10. | Acts iii. 19. § Aptsxvi. 31. 



viously to his fall, his reason (it may be presumed) was 
the guide of his inferior faculties, and his affections a'nd 
appetites in sweet harmony obeyed it's guidance. No ir- 
regular anger fired his blood, no intemperate desires vitiated 
his nature or polluted his pleasures, no tumults of envy or 
hatred or malice disturbed his tranquillity — such as we now, 
alas ! too generally feel, and lament much oftener than we 
can conquer. And so, but in a far more glorious degree, 
so shall it be again ; when we are raised from the ruins 
of our present state, and our eternal life is made complete 
in heaven. But before we arrive at that final glory, the 
same sort of happiness is, in some measure, begun in the 
breast of every true believer. This pledge of the perfect 
blessedness, which we hope for, arises from faith in the Son 
of God. For as soon as we can firmly believe, that we are 
for his sake beloved of the Father (which we can only do, 
when through his grace we feel ourselves enabled to turn 
from our wickedness) what have we farther to do, but to 
abide in his love ? We learn to despise the temptations, 
which on all sides solicit our passions, and proceed onward 
in peace and joy. Possessing the Supreme, we have no 
craving after created and inferior Good.- We have Christ 
himself for our leader, and our example ; and, truly believ- 
ing on him, we walk as he alsa walked. * 

Here the Deist will perhaps tauntingly ask, " Is not 
your sense of the divine favour a mere delusion of 
fancy, without any solid foundation of reason?" * : No," 
may the Christian steadfastly reply, " this is no affectation 
of mysterious inward light, these are no foolish or fanatical 
visions of peace and joy; because high as are my hopes, 
they are built on a due apprehension of the justice, as well 
as the mercy of God. He is faithful, and just (in considera- 
tion of what Christ endured for us) to forgive 21s our sins.f 
Besides, I have consciously undergone a real and mighty 
change. The several powers of my nature, which used to be 
in a state of perpetual warfare, are now hushed in heavenly 
harmony. My severest reason approves the transformation, 
and owns it to be divine. 



I proceed to consider, 

II. The other constituent of Eternal Life, Holiness. 
This may be described by the five following ingredients : 
1. An uncompromising Hatred of all Sin ; 



* 1 John ii. 6. 



f i. * 



12 



2. A pious Contempt of the present World, as compared 
with that which is future ; 

3. A genuine Delight in the worship and society of God ; 

4. An active Zeal in his service ; and 

5. A hearty Love of our fellow-creatures, and more es- 
pecially of fellow-christians. 

1. The Hatred of Sin is complete in heaven. In that 
blessed place, nothing but obedience is to be found : 
the spirits of just men are there made perfect. * And, in a 
degree, it is discovered in believers upon earth : for he, that 
abideth in Christy sinneth not; \ i. e. not with full purpose of 
will, not without an inward and sincere reluctancy, implying 
the combat of the Spirit against the flesh ; he does not make 
sinning his business, and his delight. This is a happy 
testimony of the truth of the Gospel, that faith in the Son of 
God purifeth the heart. % 

There have been human religions, which have professed 
a renunciation of certain sins, but then they have indulged 
others. Some have made cruelty a part of their worship, 
and injoined the sacrifices of mankind upon the altars of 
their blood-thirsty deities. Others, though they have for- 
bidden murther, have countenanced every species of im- 
purity. A third class have commended chastity; but, 
with it, they have also commended resentment and re- 
venge. The old philosophers, in opposing carnal passion, 
gratified their pride. Whereas the object of the Gospel 
is, to restrain men from every species of transgression ; to 
refine the soul in all it's powers, to enforce the observance 
of the Duties, both of the First and the Second Table, 
and, in short, to regenerate the whole man. They, 
that are Christ's, have crucified the flesh with the affections 
and lusts. § This was abundantly manifested in the primitive 
Christians. Appealing to the members of the Corinthian 
Church, the Apostle says, " So vile were some of you: but ye 
are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified, in the 
name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." \\ 
Philosophy had been carried to a great length in Corinth : 
Yet all their learning was insufficient to reform them, for 
we find they were still a profligate people, till the light of 
Christianity breaking in upon their souls effected such an 
alteration, that the world looked on with amazement, and 
thought it strange they no longer ran with it to the same 
excess of riot. 1f A drunkard became temperate, a licentious 



* Heb. xii. 23. f 1 John iii. 6. J Acts xv. 9. § Gal. v. 24. 
|[ 1 Cor. vi. 11. f 1 Pet. iv. 4. 



13 



person made an example of chastity, a cruel and passionate 
temper rendered mild and humane — this was miracle, and 
demonstration; this incontrovertibly witnessed, that the 
Gospel whence it originated was divine. 

2. A second part of holiness is, a pious Contempt of 
the present World, as compared with that which is future. 

With what a sacred disdain may we not suppose the 
inhabitants of heaven to look down upon the amusements 
and businesses, which fill our hearts with pleasure or with 
pain, and our flesh with constant labour ! Dwelling in 
the full sight of those glories, which on earth they hum- 
bly hoped for, they despise every thing below the skies. 
And this state of feeling belongs- in a certain measure, to 
every true believer. For he is not a believer, who has not 
to a great degree got above the world, and the things that are 
in the world: This is the victory that overcometh the ivorld, 
even our faith.* In proportion as Christianity possesses 
vitality and vigour in the soul, the Christian approaches to 
heaven. The affairs of this life are alike beneath his desires, 
and his views. He engages in them indeed so far, as they have 
been made a part of his earthly duty ; but he longs for that 
upper region, whither his hopes are gone before. Pain and 
poverty, reproach and even death itself, have been con- 
temned by believers with more true honour to the Gospel, 
than other religions have ever derived from similar in- 
stances of fortitude in their followers. 

Other religions, it is true, have held out a contempt 
of these things : but then it has been only here and there 
a person of a hardier mould of body, one in an age or a 
nation, who through a firmness of natural spirits, and an 
obstinate resolution (attained, perhaps, by much labour of 
meditation) has carried the principle into effect. Whereas 
Christianity records her hundreds, and her thousands : and 
that not only where the natural spirits were firmer, or the 
thoughts had been abstracted from objects of sense by in- 
tellectual exercises; but the weak, and the young, and the 
delicate, have triumphantly trampled upon the hopes and 
the fears, the joys and the sorrows, of the world. 

In the Motives, likewise, of this contempt the religion 
of the Cross far surpasses all others. Others have taught 
men to despise the c good things' (as they are called) of life, 
and to be unconcerned about it's evils, in a mere romantic 
way. Such was the doctrine of the Stoics, affirming that 



* l John, v. 4. 



14 



health and wealth, sleep and safety, had in them nothing 
to be sought ,* nor, on the other hand, pain and poverty, 
hunger and shame, any thing to be shunned. Thus, in- 
verting the use of words, they would make of us stocks and 
stones, rather than intelligent and holy despisers of earthly 
things — those things, which Christianity teaches us to de- 
spise, in the prospect of that eternal world where both the 
good and the evil things are of infinitely higher importance : 
where the glory which shall be revealed is such, that the 
sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared 
with it ; * and on the contrary, where the worm dieth not y 
and the fire is not quenched.^ 

Farther : other doctrines have endeavoured to raise 
the mind above the solicitudes of the world upon principles 
unworthy of human nature, denying the immortality of the 
soul and a life to come. Thus the Epicureans asserted, that 
' death was an eternal sleep, and that the whole man pe- 
rished irrecoverably in the grave.* But the Gospel, by 
bringing life and immortality to light, leads us on to a 
glorious contempt of all earthly vanities. We know, that 
.f our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we 
have a building of God, an house not made with hands, 
eternal in the heavens, J 

Other religions have taught their followers, not so 
much to despise riches and pleasures, as to exchange them 
for fame and popular applause. This they looked upon as 
their Chief Good. To such an imputation even Cicero 
himself, one of the most illustrious of the Heathens, is justly 
liable. Whereas the Christian both labours and suffers re- 
proach, because he trusts in the living God, and has the 
promise of the life to come;§ despising glory, as well as 
every thing else which is generally esteemed desirable, 
when placed in competition with his eternal hopes. 

Others, again, in affecting to contemn the pomps and 
grandeurs of life, have neglected all it's necessary duties 
and decencies, and degraded themselves to the level of 
brute beasts. Such were the Cynics. But the Christian 
is diligent in all his services toward both God and man, 
and fulfils the duties of his present state with usefulness 
and honour, while he eagerly looks forward to that which 
is future and invisible. 

Thus, if we consider either the degree of this part of 
Holiness (viz. Contempt of the World), the reasons upon 
which it is founded, or the extent to which it has under 



* Rom, viii. 18. f Mark ix, 44. 1 2 Cor, 1* § 1 Tim. iv. 10, 8, 



15 



■various forms of religion prevailed, we shall find that the 
<5ospel has infinitely the advantage of every other. 

5. A third part of the Holiness of eternal life consists 
in, a Genuine Delight in the Worship and Society of God. 
This is perfect in heaven. There are they before the throne 
of God, and serve him day and night in his temple. * Now 
this end also is, in a good measure, attained by Christianity. 
It brings the soul to delight in divine worship : whereas no 
human religion has ever been able to teach a sinner, how 
he might dare to appear with assurance and comfort in 
that high and holy presence. The sweet serenity, diffused 
over the souls of those whose faith in Christ is lively 
and strong, when they stand before God, supplies an 
inward and irresistible testimony to the divinity of the 
Gospel. 

Other doctrines, if they have taught men to abandon 
the vanities of the world, have taught them at the same 
time that their better happiness must flow from themselves, 
and made their own virtues their heaven. These self- 
sufficient systems, far from representing their rivers of 
pleasure as flowing from the right-hand of God, have even 
denied all dependence upon him in this respect. But 
Christianity gives us juster, and more satisfactory, views 
npon the subject. In His presence, we are assured, is full- 
ness of joy. f Hence the believer rejoices in every oppor- 
tunity of approaching him, as forming upon ea* th the begin- 
ning of heaven ; and this delight is a powerful witness to the 
truth of his religion. 

4. An ctive Zeal in the Service of God constitutes 
another part of the Holiness of eternal life. That heaven 
is not a state of mere indolent enjoyment, we have abun- 
dant reason to believe. The angels, exceeding in strength, 
■do the commandments of their Lord : £ The spirits of just 
men made perfect, we believe, are like angels : and we are 
taught to pray, that our Father's will may be done in earth, 
as it is in heaven § This strenuous diligence in the divine 
service, indeed, is the very temper and practice of the true 
Christian, even in the ordinary actions of his life : Whether 
he eats, or drinks, or whatsoever he does, he does alt to the 
glory of God. \\ 

But among the professors of no other religion was 
this active zeal to be found. Their motives of action, 
if not their own satisfaction, the indulgence of their 



* Rev. vii. 15. f Ts. xvi. n. \ lb. ciii. 20. § Matt. vi. 10. 
|| 1 Cor. x. 31. 



16 



vanity, or the affectation of surpassing rival sectaries, were at 
best the reasonableness of virtue, and the benefit accruing 
from it to society at large. But these are motives fluc- 
tuating in principle, and questionable in result. Whereas, 
when we see a person nobly negligent of his own self- 
interests, yet at the same time steadfastly and uniformly 
pursuing the honour of an invisible God, we may safely 
pronounce that such an one is under influences above what 
mere nature impresses upon him. He has the witness in 
himself. 

5. The last constituent of Holiness is, a Hearty Love 
of our Fellow-Creatures, and especially of Fellow-Christians. 
This is a splendid ingredient of Eternal Life, a beautiful part 
of the image of that God, who maketh his sun to rise on 
the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and 
on the unjust:* and to exemplify this, our Lord him- 
self, who is the true God and eternal life,^ came down 
from heaven. Now this is, in some measure, imitated in 
the practice of every true believer. He is injoined, by his 
religion, to love his neighbour as himself; J to forgive freely 
those who offend or injure him, as he hopes himself to be 
forgiven for his trespasses against God ; § honestly to re- 
joice in the welfare of his fellow-creatures; in short, to 
do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the 
household of faith. |j 

Of this diffusive beneficence other religions know 
little, or nothing. The heathens lived, generally, in malice 
and envy, hateful and hating one another. 1 They did not 
so much even as aspire to that divine virtue, the love of 
enemies. That was the noble singularity of the Gospel. 
On the contrary, they made revenge one of the great 
attributes of their Hero. But after that the kindness and 
love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, these bad 
passions were to be banished from the heart and the practice 
of his followers. This then, also, bears testimony to the 
divinity of the Christian doctrines. 

All these parts of Eternal Life, indeed, are not to be 
found equally, nor eminently, in every believer. But, 
taken collectively— Pardon of Sin, and consequent Peace 
of Conscience ; the Favour of God, and a sense of it ; with 
the soothing Harmony of all our passions and powers; a 
pious Contempt of the World, it's pains and it's pleasures ; 
genuine Delight in the Worship and Society of God ; an 



* Matt, v 45. f 1 John v. 20. \ Matt. xxii. 39. § vi. 14, 15. 
|| Gal. vi. 10. % Tit. iii. 3, 4. 



Active Zeal in his service ; and a hearty Love of our Fellow* 
Creatures, especially if they be Fellow-Christians— they supply 
a cloud of witnesses, far superior to those of any other reli- 
gion claiming to be of divine origin. And of all these qua- 
lities every true believer possesses a portion, wrought into 
his heart and exemplified in his life* Where none of them, 
in fact, are to be discovered, that person cannot with any 
just ground of hope profess himself a Christian. 

Hence, therefore, we may deduce an infallible rule for 
self-examination. Have we, in ourselves, this divine witness 
of our Christianity? Have we, by relying upon the merits 
of the Saviour, conceived a solid hope of pardoning grace, 
and thence derived peace of conscience ? Do we find a 
sincere love of God kindled in our souls by a sense of his 
special favour ? Are our faculties, and appetites, held in 
subjection and tranquillity ? Have we a hatred of sin, in 
some degree answerable to what the saints and angels have 
in heaven? Do we feel a sacred disdain of the world, 
whether it smile or frown upon us ? Have we a delight in 
the worship of God ? Are we zealous for his service ? 
And do we strive to do the will of our heavenly Father ? 
How stand our hearts affected toward our fellow-creatures ? 
Do we do to our neighbours, as we would that they should do 
to us f* Can we forgive our enemies ? Do we rejoice in 
the temporal and spiritual welfare of others without envy, 
and give the humble followers of Christ a large share in 
our affections? If this be the character and temper of our 
spirits, and this the conduct of our lives, then may we trust 
that Eternal Life is begun in us, and that we raise the 
edifice of our hopes upon a solid foundation, to be per- 
fected by the continuing grace of God in the land of im- 
mortality. 

III. It remains to be inquired, In what respects this 
Inward Witness exceeds all other testimonies. And, 

1. It is a Witness, which dwells less in the head than 
in the heart. It is known by being felt and practised, and 
not by being merely reasoned upon ; and hence it has some 
prerogatives above all the external evidences of the truth cf 
Christianity. In particular, it is always at hand. Not lost 
through the weakness of the brain, the defect of the memory, 
or long absence from books and study, it can never be 
forgotten so long as true religion remains in the bosom ; for 
it is graven there in deep and legible characters. 



* Luke vi. 31- 



18 



A Christian, who has well studied the doctrines ancf 
the proofs of the Gospel, can give sufficient reasons of the 
hope that is in him : * — " In the Miracles and Prophecies, su 
well as in other respects, I find satisfactory testimony of the 
divinity of the Christian faith. But a still more convincing 
miracle has been wrought upon my heart. My conscience, 
which was previously disturbed by the guilt of sin, is now 
upon a solid confidence of pardon established in peace, f 
have an interest in the love of God, I abhor sin, I live 
above the world, and delighting in the company of him that 
dwells in heaven, I walk as seeing the Invisible.-^ I have a 
zeal for his glory, and I love all his creatures, especially 
those who resemble him. The discoveries of his nature and 
his works, made to me in the Gospel, have bowed down my 
spirit to adore him : the revelations of his amazing conde- 
scension have fired my heart to love him. By the examples 
of superlative piety, there proposed, I have been excited to 
holy emulation : and the motives, which it suggests, are at 
once so aweful and so alluring, that all my powers of hope 
and fear combine to constrain me to obedience. I feel, in 
short, that I am totally altered from what I once was; and 
the change is of a nature, which bears kresistible evidence 
that my religion is" from God.** 

2. It is a Witness, which will in some measure appear 
in the life, whenever it is written in the heart. Is it possible, 
indeed, that a man should" possess peace of conscience, a 
humble sense of the love of God, and a calm satisfaction in 
his favour, without manifesting something of this in his 
aspect and behaviour? That he should show no serenity of 
countenance, no sweetness of temper, no inward joy ? Is it 
possible, that he should have an utter hatred of iniquity, a holy 
contempt of the world (as compared with the future glories, 
upon which his eye is fixed), a glowing zeal for God, and a 
hearty love for man — and not display it to the world ? 
Surely, his life will be with his heart, and his heart with his 
treasure, in heaven.J Brethren, says the Apostle, under the 
influence of these hopes and feelings, our conversation is in 
heaven.§ 

This testimony, it is true, cannot be communicated to 
others, in the same measure in which it is felt by believers. 
In this respect it is like the hidden manna, which none know 
except they that taste of it : as Jonathan, when faint in 
pursuing the enemy, ate of the honey, and his eyes were en' 
lightened.^ But it will always exhibit itself in one way or 



* 1 Pet. in. 15. f Heb. xi. 27. \ Matt. vi. 21. § Phil. hi. 20, 
\\ 1 Sam. xiv. 27. 



19 



^ther, in their language, or in their deportment. They will 
■ not be too much conformed to this world, * if they mean to 
give glory or evidence to the religion of Christ. 

3. This Witness, though spiritual in it's nature, may be 
justified to the strictest reason. It is no matter of mere 
fancy, or enthusiasm : for, while the believer feels it working 
strongly in his heart and soul, he finds also the convincing 
force of it upon his understanding. He knows, that he was 
once dead in trespasses and sins ;f but now he is alive to God, 
and to righteousness : and hence he concludes, by the justest 
rules of reasoning, that the doctrine to which be owes this 
blessed resurrection must be divine. 

It is a witness, however, dishonoured by too many in 
these days, who refer it to inward impulses and vehement 
irrational impressions upon the mind. This has tempted 
the profane mocker to pronounce the devout efforts of 
Christian piety the mere flashes of a kindled blood and 
vapours puffed about with every wind. Whereas the tes- 
timony of the Spirit, explained as above;, must approve 
itseif to all the sober and serious part of mankind. 

4. This Witness is, in the very nature of things, infallible ; 
and where the divine life arises to any considerable height, 
gives an assurance to the Christian, that his religion is 
true. It is not probable, indeed, that God would suffer so 
divine a testimony to belong to any doctrine, but that which 
he himself has revealed. 

5. This Witness is ever prompt and powerful to baffle 
the most learned sophisms, and the boldest temptations. 
Suppose a subtile philosopher should pretend to prove, 
that ' bread is unwholesome,' or ' that water is useless to 
allay thirst' — I may confidently maintain, in opposition to 
him, the wholesonieness of the one and the utility of the 
other ; for I daily experience both. The quibbles of logic, 
against the sense of a true believer, are but as darts of straw 
and stubble against the scaly sides of the Leviathan. 

W hen the Greek, who seeks after wisdom, says to a 
Christian; " How can your simple Gospel, which was 
invented by a Jewish peasant, and preached by a parcel of 
fishermen, be divine?" the Christian may reply, that 'all the 
wisdom of philosophy could never perform such a miracle as 
it has done, could never work such a divine life and temper 
in the heart.' When the Hebrew shall ask, "How can your 
Jesus be the Messiah ? Our Messiah must be a great king, 
deliver the Jews from their state of thraldom, and have 



* Rom. xii. 2. 



f Eph. ii. 1. 



20 



power over all nations : whereas yours was crucified among 
his countrymen, and lay like a mere mortal in his grave." 
The Christian may answer, * He, that was unto the Jews a 
stumbling-block and unto the Greeks foolishness, is to me CJmst, 
the power of God and the wisdom of God. * I have found 
holiness wrought in my soul by the belief of his Gospel. 
Such virtue has proceeded from him that I, who was before 
unclean, am now in some degree cleansed. He must, 
therefore, be the Messiah, tJie Son of God. 1 When the Deist 
shall demand, " How ean you deem divine a religion delivered 
in so mean a way as the strange story and still stranger 
doctrines of Christ ; or regard as the word of God a volume 
containing so much of obscurity and mysticism, and so little 
of eloquence or argument, that any learned man would be 
ashamed to have written it ?" the Christian may tell him ; 
* The Gospel, which you thus impiously slander, although it 
may have some petty imperfections in your eyes, has been 
to me the power of God unto salvation, f While such is it's 
divine efficacy, let it want what human ornaments it may, 
I am sure it is from above.' 

6. This Witness does not depend on the exact correct- 
ness of letters and syllables, on a critical knowledge of the 
original languages of Scripture, or on this old manuscript 
and that new translation. The substance of Christianity 
is so scattered throughout the whole of the New Testament, 
more particularly the Epistolary parts of it, that every 
manuscript and every translation contains enough to persuade 
any one to be a Christian.^. How exceedingly difficult, if not 
impossible, in many cases it is to decide, which was originally 
the genuine word or sentence ! But the humble believer 
has always learned so much of Gospel-truth, in which all 
copies agree, as has wrought in him a divine life ; and, there- 
fore, he is sure that it is, substantially, from God. 

Now this is of admirable use, in the religious world, 
upon many accounts. For, first, let us but consider how few 
of the unlearned are capable of comprehending the argu- 
ments necessary to prove the divine authority of the Sacred 
Writings : how few, even among the learned, can conclusively 
determine many of the various readings, or different transla- 
tions, of particular passages in them ! The wise Christian, 
however, does not build his faith and hope merely upon 
x>ne or two insulated texts, but upon the general sum and 
spirit of the Gospel — the great doctrines of the satisfaction 
for sin by the blood of Christ, and the renewal of our 



J Cor. i. 23, 24. f Rom. i. 16. | Acts xxvi, 28. 



2\ 



corrupt natures by the Holy Spirit ; with the necessity of 
repentance, faith, and holiness to salvation. By these, he 
feels a life of piety and peace begun within him : and 
hence, though a word here or a sentence there may be 
incorrectly transcribed or wrongly translated, or even though 
some small parts of the volume may with difficulty be proved 
authentic, he is abundantly convinced that Christianity is 
divine. 

Again ; let us note the audacious assaults made upon 
our faith by the Deists of modern days, misrepresenting and 
ridiculing the narratives and doctrines of the Bible, and then 
demanding ; " How can you believe, that this book is the 
word of God?" In such an hour of contest, how happy is 
the humble Christian, who can answer : " Though I am not 
able to solve all it's perplexities, or maintain it's sacred 
authority against the cavils of art and learning, yet I feel 
that it's doctrines have subdued my sinful appetites, and 
raised ine from death to life ; have made me love God 
above all things, and given me a well-grounded hope of his love 
in return. I cannot doubt, therefore, but that it's chief prin- 
ciples are from heaven." 

I might farther add, that from this particular view 
of the subject great support is derived in hours of temp- 
tation, when the sudden thought may invade the mind 
even of the learned ; " What if the Scripture should 
not, after all, be divine ? What if this Gospel, and 
that Epistle, should be merely the words of men, and 
not written by the pen of inspiration ?" The believer, 
who feels within himself the workings of a divine life as 
above detailed, may firmly repel the suggestion, by recol- 
lecting that 4 though he cannot immediately recollect all 
the arguments, which prove the writers of the New Testa- 
ment to have been inspired ; yet their compositions must 
needs be so, since from them began the Eternal Life 
in his soul.' Though there are many decisive arguments, 
indeed, drawn from criticism and history and other pro- 
vinces of human learning, to establish the divine authority 
of the Bible, this is the chief evidence to which Ifre far 
greater part of mankind can ever attain; viz. That they 
have found a heavenly change effected in them by reading 
or hearing it's doctrines and it's precepts, it's promises 
and it's threatenings ; and conclude the God of truth 
would not attach to a book, which was not what it affected 
to be, such glorious instances of his power and grace. 

I have dwelt the longer on this sixth property of the 
inward. witness ) because I think it of great importance in 



22 



an age beset with Deists and Infidels ; as it will defend a 
Christian in the profession of the true religion, though he 
may not have skill or learning enough to defend his Bible. 

7. This Witness is universal. Belonging to every true 
believer, it is enjoyed in some measure by the weak as 
well as by the strong, by him who is but young in grace and 
knowledge as well as by him who is grown up to the full 
stature of evangelical manhood. Even the very humblest, 
who cannot argue for the doctrine of Christ, may still find 
Christ within him the hope of glory. * He feels something of 
a sacred influence from the Gospel, to which no other doc- 
trine can pretend ; and therefore, though he cannot from 
the weakness of his attainments answer all the cavils of 
scoffers, his faith is incapable of being shaken by them. 

8. Lastly, this Witness is, or ought to be, constantly 
advancing and improving. We all, says the Apostle, with 
open face beholding (as in a glass) the glory of the Lord, 
are changed into the same image from glory to glory, \ from 
one degree of splendid holiness to another : and thus the 
Gospel shines forth with a clearer, a brighter, and a stronger 
evidence. 

Hence it comes to pass that, when Christians have 
attained to .a good degree of faith and practical purity, every 
temptation which would turn them aside from their high 
career loses it's force. They have found more and more 
of this Eternal Life wrought into their hearts ; they have 
got nearer to heaven ; they have pressed on continually 
toward perfection : a growing peace of conscience, and 
diviner sensations of the love of God have been com- 
municated to them ; their own love, both to God and man, 
has increased ; they have felt in their breasts an augmented 
abhorrence of iniquity; their holy contempt of the world 
has continually gathered strength ; they take greater delight 
in the worship and society of God ; and their zeal for his 
service has become daily warmer, and more active. 

How magnificent then, it may be remarked in conclu- 
sion, is the dispensation of the Cross ! How preferable to 
all other ieligions ! Even that of the Jews, though divinely 
revealed, had less honourable characters belonging to it. 
Many expressions, occurring in the writings of St. Paul, 
-ascribe an infinite superiority over the Law to the Gospel, 
in point both of evidence and of glory. One was the Letter, 
the other is the Spirit ; one the ministration of condemna- 



* Col. i. 21. f 2 Cor. iii. 18. 



23 



Hon, the other of salvation. So much carnality, indeed, 
entered into the scheme of the Jewish constitution, that 
they could not be raised wholly above the world ; nor were 
they so expressly injoined the practice of the duties of love 
and forgiveness, as Christianity both requires and produces 
in the hearts of sincere believers. 

2. Again ; an excellent rule is here supplied for ex- 
amining, whether we possess true faith or not. If we 
do, it will infallibly be accompanied with the evidence which 
we have been considering : for the Eternal Life begun in the 
soul proves the truth not merely of the Christian doctrine, 
but also of the faith of it's professors. The moral duties 
both of the First and the Second Table will, in a great 
degree, be transcribed into the life, wherever the Gospel is 
■written in the heart. On the other hand, such as neglect 
those duties, or indulge themselves in a careless performance 
of them, can never have within themselves this decisive 
testimony. They may be Heathens, heroes, philosophers— 
in short, any thing but Christians. 

3. We may hence, likewise, learn the true method of 
confirming our souls in the tenets of the New Testament. 
Needful indeed it is, in this our day, to be well seasoned 
with arguments against it's dangers and temptations. Chris- 
tianity begins to be, again, a stumbling-block ; and many of 
it's followers waver and are led away, sometimes to one new 
doctrine, sometimes to another — because they feel, alas ! so 
little of it's efficacy in their hearts. 

If you cannot argue for the Gospel either with learning, 
or from experience, what will you do in the hour of trial? 
Now Christians are, in general, too slightly instructed in 
those methods of knowledge, by which they might be ca- 
pable of giving satisfactory answers to it's adversaries. But, 
if a learned and ingenious infidel should inquire, * Why 
you believe in Jesus?' "I have felt the efficacy of his 
teaching on my heart," will be a sufficient reply. 

4. If there be this inward witness belonging to those 
who believe on the Son of God, then have you the strongest 
encouragement to profess that belief under the most virulent 
persecutions. Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial,* 
says St. Peter ; for in such a trial the Gospel has sustained 
thousands, and you also it will sustain under similar 
circumstances. Thus shall we learn to resist (like the 
ancient martyrs) if necessary, even unto blood, f if we have 
the seal of this truth abiding in our souls. 



1 Pet. iv. 12. 



f Heb. xii. 4. 



24 



5. Lastly; here, also, we. are taught the best way of 
propagating Christianity in the world. Let this inward tes- 
timony, the Eternal Life 'wrought in "our souls, display itself 
in all our outward behaviour. So did the primitive Christ- 
ians by their conversation* win Gentiles and unbelievers, 
V\ hen men behold your humble faith and holy fear, your 
zeal for God and your delight in his worship, your gentle- 
ness, your kindness toward your fellow-creatures, your de- 
sire of the salvation of others, and your invariable readiness 
to deny yourselves for their good, they will be persuaded to 
the acceptance ef the same doctrines and the discharge of 
the same duties. How would such visible rhetoric silence 
the most pertinacious of objectors ! If they should ask, 
" What do you more than others ?" You might confidently 
challenge all the philosophers, and all the devotees of other 
religions, to show such husbands and wives, such parents and 
children, such masters and servants, such lovers of God and 
man, as Christianity has produced. 

Most incumbent then is it upon those, who have be- 
lieved the Gospel, to live as though a part of themselves 
was already in heaven ! It is an appalling subject of re- 
flexion, indeed, to think how much the honour of Christ is 
obscured, and the promulgation of Christianity obstructed* 
by those who exhibit not this sacred Witness in their holiness 
of heart and practice ! 



* l Pet. iii. I. 



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